KARACHI (The Thursday Times) — Pakistan’s Hindus celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, on Sunday, and the preparations stretch from temple courtyards in Karachi to the desert villages of Tharparkar.
A long weekend in Sindh: the provincial cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, has approved a holiday on Monday, November 9, for Sindh’s Hindu community, home to most of the country’s Hindus. Diwali has been an optional holiday across Pakistan since 2016. Monday is also Iqbal Day, a public holiday for everyone, so many families have three days together.
State celebrations in Punjab: the Punjab government planned Diwali events across the province, with a festival in Rahim Yar Khan on November 4 and another in Lahore on November 6, Minority Affairs Minister Ramesh Singh Arora announced. He invited Hindus from Sindh, Balochistan and nearby areas to join the celebrations in Rahim Yar Khan, which sits close to Punjab’s border with Sindh.
In homes and temples: the days before Diwali are for cleaning and decorating. Families buy new clothes, fill rows of clay lamps, or diyas, with oil, draw rangoli patterns in coloured powder at their doorways and trade boxes of sweets with neighbours, Hindu and Muslim alike. On Diwali night they perform the Lakshmi puja, a prayer to the goddess of wealth and good fortune, before the lamps are lit and the fireworks begin. In Karachi the focus is the Shri Swaminarayan temple on M.A. Jinnah Road, the city’s largest, where stalls selling lamps, decorations and figurines have set up behind the temple in past years. In Lahore the main ceremony is usually held at the Krishna Mandir on Ravi Road, strung with lights and flowers.
Across the border, the Golden Temple in Amritsar lit up on Saturday night on the eve of the festival, which Sikhs also mark as Bandi Chhor Divas.
