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The 'festival of lights' has been celebrated in Guernsey with people of different faiths gathering.
Diwali commemorates the "victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance" (Wikipedia).
With its origins in Hindu culture, the celebration is now shared by different faith groups across the world.
Diwali is a major cultural event for the Hindu, Sikh, and Jain Dharma faiths, with celebrations held annually in numerous countries with public holidays held in Guyana, India, Malaysia, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Pictured: Diwali is celebrated by different faith groups and countries. (Milly Mallender)
Known as the festival of lights, Diwali is connected to various other religious events as well as deities.
It is associated with the day Rama - a Hindu deity - returned to his kingdom after defeating Ravana in battle, and also associated with the goddess of prosperity, Lakshmi, and Ganesha, the god of wisdom.
At the outset of Diwali celebrations, homes, temples and workplaces are illimuninated with candles, lanterns and other beacons before dancing and food take centre stage.
Pictured: There was a dancing display by women at yesterday's Diwali celebrations in Guernsey. (Milly Mallender)
Some people, particularly of Hindu origin choose to bathe at dawn on each day of the festival while fireworks can often be heard at the close of the day.
Like many celebrations the focus is on family and the community with people coming together to dance and eat after the ceremonial lighting.
Some Diwali events are large public celebrations with parades and fairs, while other people may choose to gather in small groups.
Much like Easter, Diwali is a moveable feast.
Pictured: Yesterday's celebrations had a carnival atmosphere. (Milly Mallender)
It is celebrated between mid-September and mid-November - according to the Hindu lunisolar calendar.
The celebrations can last for up to six days.
Diwali falls on Sunday 12 November this year, with the Guernsey public event being held a week earlier.
There have been four Diwali events held in Guernsey with the 2023 event the biggest yet.
Pictured: A Bollywood inspired dance. (Milly Mallender)
Raj Singh from the organising committee said there is a good understanding of the importance of the event here.
"Most of the people understand Diwali to be honest as a festival of light and most of the people understand. This time since we went out and put it on the Facebook pages and stuff. We are getting enormous, enormous references this time what we are doing here.”
Mr Singh said the huge global event has its history in Hinduism but it is not just celebrated by Hindu's anymore.
“Initially, maybe 200 years ago, it used to be celebrated by Hindus, but now it is widespread and celebrated by a lot of other communities.
"Here we have friends from India, Mauritius, Israel and we have friends from Sri Lanka."
Pictured: Everyone was encouraged to join in with the dancing. (Milly Mallender)
"We have friends from local too, I think it's a beautiful island and everybody should know that we have different flavours on the island.”
Seekshah was another volunteer at the Guernsey event and she likened the importance of Diwali to the importance of Christmas for Christians.
"Diwali is celebrated worldwide nowadays and it's the festival of lights, and it's like, you enjoy it with your family and it's a really big, big event in India. It's like how we have Christmas on this side of the world and the celebration.”
Pictured above and top: All images by Milly Mallender.
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