Talk:Diwali/Archive 2

arya samaj - suriname

The arya samaj branch in suriname celebrates divali as the victory of good over evil. On this day, they keep fast on vegetarian food and dias are lighted while chanting the gayatri mantra. Practice is to keep one dia, which is of larger size with two wicks in opposing direction forming a cross while the other dias have one wick. The larger dia as a result has four candle lights in each direction (N,W<S<E) while the others have one. A dia is kept in every room except the bathroom and restroom. More dias are lit, which can be placed arbitrarily in the yard, livingroom etc.

Arya Samajis do not believe in idol worship and thus Lakshmi is not revered on this day, it is seen mostly as a day to celebrate victory of good over evil, light over darkness and a day to keep stock of harvest.

DIWALI of Sanatan Dharma

Sanatan Dharma is nothing but a different path to achieve the SUPREME. It's like different hikers takes different path on mountain to reach the PEAK.

Out of all of the infinite paths, the majority of Vedic people (80% population) prefers common pathway to reach creator-sustainor-destroyer (BRAHMA/VISHNU/SHIV-OM). All other paths are equal too. The festival of DIWALI from the beginning of time (Time Immemorial) is dedicated to VISHNU and its Avatars. The festival of Diwali starts from Dhanteras and spreads over five days.

1st-Day of Diwali : Dhanteras is SatyaYug day of Dhanwantari (Lord VISHNU), who emerged with an amrit Kalash (pot of nectar Ayurved) along with Goddess Lakshmi.

2nd-Day of Diwali : The Narak Chaturdashi, is the day when Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Vishnu, in their incarnations (Avatars) as Satyabhama and Krishna, killed the demon Narakasura.

3rd-Day of Diwali : Diwali or Kartik Amavasya is the main day to celebrate Diwali by Lighting of diyas on this day to mark the homecoming of Shri Ram (the incarnation of Vishnu), Sita (Laxmi). It is the night of homecoming of one of the most powerful forces in the universe, the force of Vishnu.

4th Day of Diwali : Govardha Puja is associated with the lifting of the Govardhan Parvat by adolescent Krishna, incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Once again, it is a day when the energy of Vishnu peaks. Goverdhan Puja, or Annakut (translated as “a mountain of food”) is originated to celebrate this day.

5th Day of Diwali : Bhai Duj is associated with the episode of Goddess Lakshmi making Asur Bali her brother and asking him to release Lord Vishnu whom he had taken to Paatal Lok with him. It is the day of return of Lakshmi and Vishnu.

80% of VEDIC People dedicates (DIWALI month to VISHNU and SAAVAN month to SHIV). And they consider both VISHNU-SHIV are same. It doesn't matters whether on Diwali day who is worshiped (LAXMI-GANESHA or RAM-Krishna or Durga-Kali or any of family members of creator-sustainer-destroyer are worshiped. Everything comes under Brahma-Vishnu-Shiv aspect of the SUPREME).

These days many groups worship Ganesha but hates SHIV, many worship Laxmi but never talks about VISHNU, many worship non-idols but forgets the other side of the coin. Dedicating festival to Mother Nature, Harvesting Season, GURU the teacher god, Parents, Social Workers, Country, etc is fine but primarily the truth of DIWALI festival under Sanatan Dharma is dedicated to VISHNU (the sustainer aspect of the SUPREME).

HARI-OM is mool mantra of Sanatan Dharm. HARI (the VISHNU), OM (the SHIV) are TAT and SAT !! The festival of DIWALI from the beginning of time (Time Immemorial) is dedicated to VISHNU and its avatars. SHIV is witness of this festival (the NIRAKAAR OM)

Requesting comments on Images

1. O'Dea has added an image of India on Diwali by NASA from space see this. The caption notes at the end, "In reality, any extra light produced during Diwali is too dim to be visible from space." Given this disclosure, what useful information does this image add to this article on Diwali? Does the current caption mislead that the white areas inside the map are Diwali lights?

2. After reading MOS:IMAGES, I am unclear where wikipedia guidelines set a maximum limit on number of images in an article. Yes, too many images can be distracting and wikipedia articles should not become a gallery. But a sufficient number of good images can enhance the article. The latest version of the article has too few images.

I request input from other contributors to this article on which images to keep and which to avoid. For an article version with more images, please see this. Compare it to the current version. Please let me know.

FWIW, I was about to add citations to image and image boxes I had added. But, I will hold off for now. I seek consensus and collaboration to help improve this article. If we decide to bring additional images, I will provide WP:RS citations inside each image or imagebox.

Peace, Lisa.davis (talk) 20:35, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

The caption for the satellite image does not, as claimed, state that Diwali has made a difference to visibility of the subcontinent, which would be absurd, rather, it is a unique perspective on the day of the festival. As to the remaining images, if I had more time I would reflect on which of them to remove. It is still a heavily-illustrated article containing 17 images which is a lot, and it continues to exhibit excessive image content overlap. The article makes clear that it is a festival of lights, but we do not need as many images as still remain to illustrate this simple concept, where we see many illuminated buildings. There are also multiple pictures of lanterns and multiple pictures of rangoli. We also continue to have too many repeated fireworks images. So, rather than add images back in, we need to decide which remaining ones to remove, because of all this repetition – which Wikipedia policy discourages. I have added a link to the Commons collection of pictures to satisfy any desire for further illustration, in the unlikely event that a reader remains unsatisfied. The previous situation where there were two galleries and 44 images (!) was simply untenable. Readers might also note that some of the many images added by Ms. Davis were uploaded by her of people in her family. This is not a family album. — O'Dea (talk) 20:50, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

Dear O'Dea, None of those images are of my family or friends. I uploaded them from Flickr creative commons, and they have nothing to do with anyone I know. I request you assume good faith.

I withdraw my observation about Davis using personal pictures, and apologise. The reason for the confusion was precisely because there are so many pictures to check: the tedium caused me to confuse the uploader name and the picture author name. Davis uploaded so many files just to illustrate this article that I incorrectly formed the impression that a handful of them were taken by her when I saw her name repeated so many times. My mistake: I should have paid closer attention. — O'Dea (talk) 08:57, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

Ms. Davis uploaded and added to an amply-illustrated article 31 additional images exhibiting much exuberant thematic repetition. The following are the images she uploaded and added:

Images re-posted by O'Dea after removing captions explaining their uniqueness; see collapsed lists below for images with relevant captions - Peace, Lisa.davis

Fireworks 1 Fireworks 2 Fireworks 3 Fireworks 4 Fireworks 5 Firework in hand Lighting 1 Lighting 1 Lighting 2 Lighting 3 Lighting 4 Lighting 4 Lighting 5 Lighting 5 Lighting 6 Lighting 7 Lighting 7 Lighting 8 Lit up building 1 Lit up building 2 Lit up building 3 Lit up building 4 Lit up building 5 Food 1 Food 2 Food 3 Dancing 1 Dancing 2 Dancing 3 Dancing 4 Floor decor 1 Floor decor 2 Floor decor 3 Banality 1 Banality 2

Bear in mind that there already existed pictures in the article of many of these themes. Where a gallery existed, she added repetitive pictures to it and went on to create a second gallery. This is overkill. — O'Dea (talk) 08:57, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

What unique perspective does the NASA image offer? Few months ago, I had browsed NASA pictures for India, South Asia and other regions. There is no difference between 2012 Diwali image and non-Diwali image. Perhaps, let us invite comments from other contributors on this too. I can try to get NASA links, if anyone is interested. Either way, we should be careful about WP:OR. Right now, the NASA image is not persuasive to me.

The article had 22 images before I first edited this article this weekend, and after you first edited this article weeks ago (see this). If we remove the gallery section at the bottom of today's-O'Dea-edit version, the number of images/imageboxes drop back about 25, similar to version before I made my first edit. I am fine with removing the gallery section. I believe quality images should be included to sufficiently represent different aspects of Diwali festival, as well as adequately represent different regions within India. I like the Diwali celebration images from different countries you have kept so far.

Peace, Lisa.davis (talk) 21:19, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

To ease input from other contributors, here is a numbered list of collapsed show/hide images which were in this article on Sunday, December 1 2013. These are in addition to images in this version of the current article. These image sets do not have citations, as this is talk page. If you have alternate quality images from Commons collection of pictures or elsewhere on wikimedia, please suggest.

Imagebox 1

Diwali celebrations Floor Diyas on Diwali night File:Diya necklace Dipavali Diwali November 2013.jpg Balcony row of Diwali Diyas File:Aakash Kandil - Diwali Pune India 2013.jpg Diwali lanterns (Aakash Kandil) A Nepalese temple lighting Interior home decoration Exterior home decoration Diwali night skies Diwali night fireworks Diwali festivities include a celebration of sights, sounds, arts and flavors.

Image 2
On Dhanteras, diya lights are left burning all night.

Imageset 3
Rangoli or Kolam decorations for the festival of lights in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Image 4
Sparklers, called phuljhari, are popular with some children on Diwali nights.

Imageset 5
Diwali is a peak shopping season for small items to gold jewelry. Retail malls and shops decorate and offer sales.

Image 6
Mehndi is applied on women's hands at a Diwali Mela.

Image 7
File:(1) Rangoli with Light & Shadow Diwali November 2013.jpg Rangoli and lights for Diwali

Image 8
Diwali fireworks in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Image 9
Diwali lights

Image 10
Home decorated with festive lights for Diwali.

Old Gallery of Image Section (A section proposed to be deleted, please pick any images you would like in the article)

Diwali celebrations inside India A Rajasthan retail market decorated for Diwali A Haryana neighborhood decorated for Diwali Office building decorated for Diwali An Indian girl making Diwali rangoli A Diwali rangoli Rural celebrations on Diwali - floating diya over river Ganges Fireworks on Diwali Diwali fireworks over Bangalore skies Mithai (sweets) for Diwali A homemade feast for Diwali A diya Greetings cards sent on Diwali Diwali celebrations outside India Diwali event in Canada Diwali event in Germany Diwali decorations in Mauritius Multi-cultural Diwali, Trinidad and Tobago A Hindu temple on Diwali in the United States Diwali event in the United States

With these images in, here is how the article looks: click this (December 1 2013 compare version). I await comments from others.

Peace, Lisa.davis (talk) 22:18, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

For comparison purposes, Christmas and New Year's Eve wiki articles have about 20 images, while Chinese New Year wiki article has about 25 images. Neither has a gallery section.

Diwali is a 5 day festival, as well as a new year for many, with diverse regions of India celebrating Diwali in different ways. Non-lighting decorations, lighting decorations, fireworks, etc vary regionally in India. Diwali festivities inside India are far far bigger than those outside India. The quantity and the content of images should reflect this. A balanced, NPOV article would give WP:DUE weight to images with most important and significant aspects of Diwali. I suggest we aim for about 20 quality images from India, and 4 from outside India. Peace, Lisa.davis (talk) 02:38, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

This is the same problem, repeated. Here we have multiple images of dancers, multiple images of fireworks, multiple images of dishes, multiple images of rangoli, multiple images of illuminated buildings, and on and on. One image of each is enough to make the point. A picture of fireworks in India is the same as one in Melbourne. Pick one. The picture of mehndi does not belong in this article at all. It is worn often, not just during Diwali, not just for festivities. It is used like lipstick, but less commonly, so it is not unique to Diwali. Referring to how many pictures there are at other articles is just a version of Wikipedia:Other stuff exists. Perhaps it is the case that they need cleaning up, too. I have no time to discuss the other images now, but these proposals desire to re-apply photomanic excess and repetition to the article. Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia, not a picture gallery. Diwali is already a long article. Adding more pictures increases the download burden unnecessarily, for the sake of repeating illustrative points already made. — O'Dea (talk) 07:14, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

Dear O'Dea - Above, you apologized for accusing me falsely of posting a family album. I read your apology, but please know that your false allegation was insulting and hurtful to me.

Let us try to reach an agreement here. We have agreed that wiki articles are not picture gallery, so let us remove the gallery section. We both agree images need to be less. On which images to keep and what to delete, see WP:JDLI and WP:OWN. "I just don't like it" is not persuasive, nor is "I just like it" for that NASA image you like. That applies to me, as well.

Wikipedia suggestions in I JUST DON'T LIKE IT cases

1. Editing disputes are expected to be settled by reasoned civil discourse, and editors are expected to base their arguments as to content upon what can be verified—without introducing their own arguments, analyses, hypotheses, and conclusions—from reliable and independent sources.

2. Wikipedia's editing community comprises a broad spectrum of people from around the world, and what is uninteresting and dislikable to some is of vital interest to others. (...) Human knowledge is what Wikipedia covers, and its extent is determined by the world at large, as documented and recorded in reliable sources, not by us as editors choosing what we personally consider to be popular." - WP:JDLI

Let us resolve our difference by adding proper captions to explain what makes the added image unique and useful. Since you have added back the NASA image you like, I will add back some images I like with captions. Either we leave both your and some of my images in there, or we delete both, during the period we resolve our dispute. Please extend me the same courtesy that you want me to extend to you. Peace, Lisa.davis (talk) 12:08, 3 December 2013 (UTC)

Other names

When I was growing up in a Tamizh Nadu Vaishnava family, we celebrated Deepavali. During those formative years, I did not know the term "Diwali". The Diwali term was probably derived as a lazy way of saying Deepavali. Diwali has no meaning. As I understand Deepavali means line of lights; this makes more sense. I wish people would [use] the word Deepavali.

We believe the significance of Deepavali is the celebration of Lord Krishna vanquishing Asura Naraka, good over evil. 23.112.28.166 (talk) 22:58, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

There are lots of Indian languages; I'm sure they all say this a little differently. That said, It does look like Divali and Deepavali are common enough to deserve inclusion in the opening line, certainly above "Festival of Lights" (which is more often going to have referred to Hannukah in English in the past). — LlywelynII 08:04, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

More topics

Some of the topics are not discussed

Juwairiyyahkhan2003 (talk) 16:20, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

Pronunciation

When I came by the page, there was an entirely needless English pronunciation in the opening line. Don't restore it; kindly remove it if someone does.

In English, dih-wah-lee is a straight-forward pronunciation of something spelled "Diwali" and throwing IPA in people's faces is more unhelpful than not. Keep NAD in mind and just port that info over to Wiktionary. Now, if someone wants to add the pronunciation of various Indian dialects... well, I'd still say that belongs in the name/etym/etc. section and not the lead, but it's at least encyclopaedic and somewhat helpful. — LlywelynII 08:04, 6 April 2014 (UTC)

I'd disagree, The consonants are obvious, but not the vowels. The first and last "I" could be pronounced "i" like in "kit" or "eye" like in "kite" or "ee" like in "key", then the "a" could be pronounced "aye" like in "Kate" or "are" as in "cart" or "a" as in "cat", or any of them could be unstressed too, giving even more possibilities. In fact even the "w" could logically even be a kind of "u" sound.

Diwali is not the most obscure topic or word, but it's not the most well known either, it is a foreign word after all, and I don't think having the pronunciation in the lead is over kill or turning into a dictionary. Just because you and also I know how to pronounce it and find it easy doesn't mean everybody will. My OED has the pronunciation for approximately one in ten words, not every single word, but it has it for Diwali, and I used it for a reference. It's pretty standard for Wikipedia to have pronunciation of such words and put it in the lead too.

For example a huge number of very well known cities and nations, with fairly logical pronunciations include pronunciations. Check out Los Angeles London Paris Berlin Tokyo Japan France Germany and probably thousands more, in fact some of them go as far as having a sound file also in the lead to further aid letting the reader know the correct pronunciation. I feel I should add the pronunciation back, but I do not wish to edit war, and we should ask for the opinions of others if this becomes an issue to see what the wider consensus is.  Carlwev  12:26, 10 October 2014 (UTC)

The pronunciation in the lead sentence is not necessary. Any interested reader can find it in the etymology and names section. It is, as Llywelyn notes, better ported to Wiktionary.

While I left the Divali and Deepavali in the lead sentence, do we need the alternate names there? After all, the lead infobox and section below already has it too. Abbey kershaw (talk) 13:09, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

yaksharatri

Yaksharatri needs a thorough mention as its a predecessor of Diwali,why was it removed? Nijgoykar (talk) 01:37, 19 October 2014 (UTC)

"Ancient times"

Under "History", there's this:

Diwali dates back to ancient times in India, as a festival after the summer harvest in the Hindu calendar month of Kartika.

The festival is mentioned in the Padma Purana (c. 701–1200 CE) [...]

Given that the Vedas date to the 2nd millennium BCE, an origin around 700-1200 CE seems relatively recent. In the West, we'd probably call this era "medieval" rather than "ancient" times.

Is there history prior to 700 CE? If not, maybe "ancient times" is confusing here. I understand that "ancient" is pretty subjective, but absent other information I would have placed it much earlier. --ESP (talk) 17:48, 23 October 2014 (UTC)

I will fix this, and add Katha Upanishad from 1st millennium BC. Abbey kershaw (talk) 17:56, 10 November 2014 (UTC)

Autumn?

The article currently states that Diwali is celebrated in Autumn. Does Wikipedia have a policy about clarifying seasonal references? Diwali is being celebrated in Australia, for example, at the same time it is being celebrated in India, and it is definitely not Autumn in Australia. 203.35.135.168 (talk) 01:03, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

And how about a more specific date or dates, in any case? Fireworks going off tonight, near here, but is it Diwali or not? 83.104.133.97 (talk) 18:50, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

diwali is an important festival for hindus based on the region of india,in many parts of india the festival start with dhanteras,followed by naraka chaturdasi on second day,diwali on the third day,diwali padva dedicated to wife husband relationship on the fourth,and festivies.Dedication to sister and brother bond on the fifth day.dhanateras usally falls eighteen days after dussehra.22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:33, 18 January 2015 (UTC)~₳¢¢₢₢₫₯₯₠₣₤₤ℳℳℳ₥₦№₧£₨₨₪৳₩₮♠♠♣♣♥♥♦♭♯♯©©™™◌

diwali is an important festival for hindus based on the region of india,in many parts of india the festival start with dhanteras,followed by naraka chaturdasi on second day,diwali on the third day,diwali padva dedicated to wife husband relationship on the fourth,and festivies.Dedication to sister and brother bond on the fifth day.dhanateras usally falls eighteen days after dussehra.22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)22:37, 18 January 2015 (UTC)~₳¢¢₢₢₫₯₯₠₣₤₤ℳℳℳ₥₦№₧£₨₨₪৳₩₮♠♠♣♣♥♥♦♭♯♯©©™™◌

fix

Please Fix infobox >Kushared (talk) 13:25, 6 July 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 November 2015

Hi Happy Diwali — Preceding unsigned comment added by 182.72.175.22 (talk) 10:35, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 10 November 2015

Historically since Treta Yug, Diwali is mainly celebrated to honor Lord Rama (the seventh avatar of the god Vishnu) return after 14-year exile and killing the Ravan. The people of Ayodhya lighted the kingdom with earthen divas (oil lamps) to celebrate the return of their Lord Rama.

Rama, the seventh avatar of Vishnu, is one of the oldest avatars of Lord Vishnu having a human form. Lord Rama birth falls in the Shukla Paksha on the Navami, the ninth day of the month of Chaitra in the Hindu calendar. His return to Ayodhaya was after Dussehra (victory over the ten-headed demon king Ravana) so Lord Rama's returned to Ayodhya is primary reason for Diwali Celebration.

Lord Rama Treta Yug lasted for 1,296,000 years, than came Lord Krishna Dvāpara-yuga of 864,000 years, so Diwali celebration dates back to millions year back (1,296,000 years plus 864,000 plus KaliYug period).

Rama, is none other than but Supremo Lord Vishnu, so Diwali is also associated with Lakshmi (The goddess of happiness and good fortune). It is believed that she roams the earth on this day and enters the house that is pure, clean, and bright.

Later with time, people coincided many other auspicious events with Diwali, to show integrity, togetherness, and respect for all believes. This flexibility of coinciding various other auspicious events with Diwali day celebration was accepted since this was primary character of Lord Rama (Lord Vishnu).

Avithalani (talk) 03:54, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

 Not done No edit request as such made. Propose changes to be done in the format "change X to Y". §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 08:46, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

"Deepavali" as an alternate name

"Deepavali" should be included (at least) as an alternate name for the festival. "Deepawali" is a misspelling introduced long ago by people who did not understand the difference between the consonant sounds "v" and "w". Deepavali is, in fact, the original name for the festival shortened to "Diwali" by lazy speakers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vjmohan (talk • contribs) 20:11, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

 Done - Kautilya3 (talk) 22:06, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

Deep Daan Utsav (Diwali) started by the king ASHOKA after the klinga war and accepted the Buddhism चक्रवर्ती सम्राट अशोका के बारे मेँ जानते ही होँग. अशोका का जन्म ई पूर्वे 304 मेँ पाटलीपुत्र पटना मेँ हुआ था और उनका देहाअँत ई पूर्वे 232 मेँ हुआ.अशोका ने कलिँगा युध्ध के बाद अर्थात ई पूर्वे 274 Buddhism का स्वीकार कीया. और फिर बाद मेँ बुध्धा के धम्म के प्रचार प्रसार मेँ लग गये तकरीबन ई पूर्वे 260 सँपुर्ण मोर्ये डेस्टनि बुध्धमय हो गया था उस समये वर्ण व्यवस्था का 85 प्रतिशत से उपर नाश हो गया थ ा तब कोई ब्राह्मण नही कोई छत्रिये नही कोई शुद्र नही सब अपने कर्म के मुताबिक काम करते थे. उस समय ई पूर्वे 255 के आसपास अशोका ने अफधानिस्तान से लेकर बाँग्लादेश बर्मा और असम केरल सब जगा पर 84 हजार बुध्ध स्तुपो का निर्माण कराया था तब स्तुप निर्माण की खुश मेँ अशोका ने सभी स्तूपो पर एक ही दिन दिप प्रागटये कर के उत्सब मनाने कि धोषणा की थी तब दिप प्रागटये के लिये अमास की अंधेरी रात को पंसद किया था कयु की उस समये अंधेरा घना होता है तो दिपो की ज्योती से पुरा मोर्ये साम्राज्य झगमगा उठेगा उस दिन सभी स्तूपो पर दिप प्रागटये कर के उत्सव मनाया गया तब से इस उत्सव को दिपो

का त्योहार के रुप मेँ मनाया जाता था. तकरीबन ई पूर्वे 255 के आसपास चालु हुआ और ई पूर्वे 185 तक ये हर साल मनाया जाता था फिर अशोका के पौत्र बुह्रद की हत्या के बाद शुंगने स्तूपो का विनाश चालु किया फिर धीरे धीरे ये त्योहार बुध्ध से निकल कर राम मेँ काउन्टिँग हो गया.

जिसे मेँ और आप आज के जमाने मेँ दिपावली कहेते है,

मेरे कहेने का मतलब दिप प्रागटये त्योहार मुलतह बुध्धो का त्योहार है. — Preceding unsigned comment added by DBRAO (talk • contribs) 02:49, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

Diwali - Significance - Hinduism

The current section states "Hindus across the world celebrate Diwali in honor of the return of Lord Rama, his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana from exile of 14 years." Which is not universal reason for celebration of Diwali across all Hindus. I recommend to add other reasons for celebration of Diwali by Hindus and correct the universal connotation of above sentence. I request for comments on updating this obvious effort to make celebration of Diwali homogeneous among all Hindus. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Neil2000 (talk • contribs) 18:42, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

There's no problem with adding other reasons, providing that they are reliably sourced and not from some arbitrary list, like this one, which is simply suggesting 10 reasons to celebrate it. OhNoitsJamie ^Talk 18:55, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 13 November 2015

Diwali is an official holiday in Myanmar also. Hemant.pooja (talk) 04:41, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

Is this evidenced? - BobKilcoyne (talk) 05:37, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 November 2015

This should be in the Australia section of the page: On the Australian external territory of Christmas Island, Deepavali is recognised as a holiday alongside many other celebrations common in Australia, Malaysia as well as local celebrations of the island. 121.219.234.96 (talk) 22:54, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Are you sure? This link doesn't mention it: [1] Stickee (talk) 01:06, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

The sources provided are actually sources that are written and published by people of Christmas Island, the "Christmas Island Tourism Association", "Christmas Island National Park" and the "Australian Government - Director of National Parks". After doing some research the holiday is recognised as an official holiday of the island but not a public holiday. It can still be included but instead referring to it as a recognised holiday on the island. (110.148.155.172 (talk) 06:44, 10 November 2015 (UTC))

What exactly is a "recognised holiday" if it's not a public holiday? Stickee (talk) 02:01, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

You can add it in as this: On the Australian external territory of Christmas Island, Deepavali is a celebrated annual holiday alongside many other celebrations common in Australia, Malaysia as well as local celebrations of the island. (124.180.201.95 (talk) 04:07, 23 November 2015 (UTC))

Hello all Wikipedia users who come by this page,

As you can see I have already asked for this edit request to be done but I have been ignored. I added another request after this one, as there was no progress happening with this one, a few days ago for it but it was ignored as well, as no one was interested in adding the information in, saying that it was just a duplicated request. I have also contacted some users who knew about this on their talk pages but they just ignored me. I am not sure why some Wikipedia users are ignoring me and not helping, just last week I was told to create an official Wikipedia account so my edits, that I made to another Wikipedia page, could be taken seriously. Just becuase I am an IP user doesn't mean I should be treated unfairly and ignored, not all IP users are vandals. I originally published a slightly altered version with sources of this request before this article was protected but another user removed it from the article without any explanation, I have altered it again and I'm trying to add it back in as an edit request now that the page is protected, but no one seems to be interested. I ask kindly, could someone please add this information back in. It should be added to the Australia section of the page. This is what it is:

On the Australian external territory of Christmas Island, Deepavali is a celebrated annual holiday alongside many other celebrations common in Australia, Malaysia as well as local celebrations of the island.

Thank you (101.160.23.228 (talk) 05:08, 26 November 2015 (UTC))

That still didn't answer my question. What is the difference between a "celebrated holiday" and any other day? As we've already established, it's not a recognised public holiday. Does it just mean that some people celebrate it on that day? Stickee (talk) 12:08, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

The celebrations are just like the celebrations in Melbourne, it's not a public holiday but it's still celebrated. I'm not sure whether you know that most people on Christmas Island are Australians of Malaysian descent. If you look at the links it clearly says that they celebrate this festival alongside many other celebrations such as the Hungry Ghosts Festival and Vesak, just because it's not a public holiday doesn't mean it's not celebrated. The sources I have attached clearly say everything that you want to know. As you can probably see, I am deeply offended at the way this has been dragged on for nearly an entire month, out of all the edit requests I have published none have taken this long to be responded to. (120.144.17.197 (talk) 23:25, 26 November 2015 (UTC))

How about this? On the Australian external territory of Christmas Island, Deepavali is celebrated alongside many other celebrations common in Australia, Malaysia as well as local celebrations of the island. Instead of the ambiguous "celebrated annual holiday" I replaced it just with "celebrated". I also saw your comments on I dream of horses' talk page (IDoH), do you think this is a joke? (120.144.17.197 (talk) 01:13, 27 November 2015 (UTC))

Done Stickee (talk) 09:40, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

References

Celebration dates

Why are the celebration dates in the "infobox" listed in REVERSE chronological/date order???

Plus, there are spacing and 'format' errors. 68.231.71.119 (talk) 15:59, 2 September 2016 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 27 October 2016

Deepawali in telugu states(andhra pradesh and telangana) of south india is celebrated on same day as north indians celebrate.http://www.telugucalendar.org/2016/daily/october-30.php 103.232.128.16 (talk) 04:21, 27 October 2016 (UTC)

No specific X to Y edit proposed. Brianga (talk) 14:38, 27 October 2016 (UTC)

Will add a note to reflect this in the Andhra Pradesh section. Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 13:11, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

Deepavali date in Karnataka

In Karnataka we celebrate Deepavali on 31 October 2016 (i.e. 4th day). 2nd day we celebrate it as Naraka Chaturdashi , 3rd day as Laxmi Pooje and 4th day as Balipadyami, Deepavali. Deepavali holiday is also on 4th day (i.e. 31 October 2016) in Karnataka state. @Ms Sarah Welch: Thalai deepavali is celebrated in Tamil Nadu not in Karnataka. Ab abhi (talk) 14:49, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

References

@Ab abhi: Those look like just holiday date announcements. See the 2015 announcement, which stated November 10 2015 as Karnataka holiday for Diwali, while November 11 2015 appears to be date of Diwali in the north as "gazetted holiday" (whatever that means, is that national holiday list there?). We need better and reliable source to clarify all this. These websites are not WP:RS. Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 15:30, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

@Ms Sarah Welch: See the 2015 official holiday announcement by Karnataka Govt. Govt of Karnataka Holiday List 2015, It was on 12 November 2015. Ab abhi (talk) 15:51, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

@Ab abhi: This is an article on Diwali, not a list of government holidays there. Isn't Diwali related to Lakshmi etc Pooja, and Balipadyami something different? Isn't Diwali a many days festival in Karnataka? At least that is what I see in these non-reliable websites, and I wonder how accurate they are. May be you can create an article on Balipadyami Deepavali? For now, I am fine if we update and clarify all this in the dedicated section to Karnataka in this article, but do cite the WP:V sources. No change to the infobox or lead, on this, unless we have more clarity with WP:RS. Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 16:06, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

Tihar

@The China Room: Welcome to wikipedia. There is already a dedicated Tihar (festival) article, and a hat note on top of this article pointing to that article. The infobox, the lead and the main part of this article already mention Tihar of Nepal. There seems no persuasive reason to mix the terminology further in this article. Please explain your reasons, discuss this and gain consensus on this talk page per WP:BRD. Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 13:26, 1 November 2016 (UTC)

Termology

The Tihar and Diwali are synonymously used in Nepal. Since, both are the Hindu festival of lights, they should be mixed together. Indeed, Tihar is already accepeted as a regional varient of Diwali in Nepal and North India. The different name for same festival should not create confusions and misunderstanding on wikipedia. Both Diwali and Tihar (festival) includes 'Deepawali' as an alternative name. Diwali is also within the Nepal scope article from start. We can also redirect Tihar, Deepawali and Diwali to new article - Diwali, Deepawali or Tihar and include all the headings of one another. Please do not revert my edit until the discussion is closed. (The China Room (talk))

@The China Room: There are similarities and there are differences between the two. They are not the same festival, just like Bandi Chor Divas and Diwali are not same, though they are celebrated on the same day and some similar festivities. We already have two articles, this and Tihar. Are you suggesting we delete the Tihar (festival) article and merge the two? Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 15:53, 1 November 2016 (UTC)

Merge

I propose to merge Diwali (Jainism) into this article since both are about same festival. -- Pankaj Jain Capankajsmilyo (talk · contribs · count) 08:14, 2 November 2016 (UTC)

Comment: The Diwali (Jainism) is almost entirely unsourced/OR, why merge? I checked Hermann Jacobi, for example, and can't find what the article alleges Jacobi states. @Capankajsmilyo: Why not improve the existing separate article first by deleting all content that fails WP:V in any RS, and adding summary from RS? To help you get started: Paul Dundas, Jeffery Long and others who have written on Jainism have a bit on Divali and Jainism. Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 16:04, 2 November 2016 (UTC)

How about adding only what is sourced with RS to Diwali and making the Diwali (Jainism) a redirect. -- Pankaj Jain Capankajsmilyo (talk · contribs · count) 16:17, 2 November 2016 (UTC)

@Capankajsmilyo: First fix that article. Make it a stub if you need to. If you start improving that article, add more summary from WP:RS, those interested in considering your proposal may be better informed, before they vote for or against the proposed merger. Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 17:05, 2 November 2016 (UTC)

Official Holiday in USA

Why didn't the information upadated as it is declared as official holiday in USA.--IM3847 (talk) 11:04, 17 November 2016 (UTC)

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Astroved.com

@113.193.184.26: please see WP:RS. How does the commercial website astroved.com meet the reliable source guidelines? Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 10:18, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

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Semi-protected edit request on 11 September 2017

In the section "spiritual significance" I think that "Diwali is celebrated by Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs and Newar Buddhists[17] to mark different historical events, stories but they all symbolise the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, hope over despair.[6][7][30]" Should be changed to "Diwali is celebrated by Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs and Newar Buddhists[17] to mark different historical events AND STORIES, but they all symbolise the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, hope over despair.[6][7][30]" Except without the capitals, that I have used to show my change. I think this makes more grammatical sense.

Thank you! IsaacvdM (talk) 15:22, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

Done — nihlus kryik  (talk) 02:13, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 4 October 2017

Under the section "Spiritual Significance": Please change "..celebrated by Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs.." to "..celebrated by people of all religions in India, including Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Buddhists and more."

Stating that Diwali is only celebrated in India by "Hindius, Sikhs, and Jains" is like saying Christmas is only celebrated by Christians in the U.S. This is especially important to signify the depth of religious tolerance and cultural integration in India.

Thank you. Darshisen (talk) 16:37, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

Not done: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{edit semi-protected}} template. —KuyaBriBri^Talk 18:13, 4 October 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 October 2017

Peter9999 (talk) 17:15, 9 October 2017 (UTC)

Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format.SparklingPessimist ^{Scream at me!} 22:57, 9 October 2017 (UTC)

I suggested to ADD something to the REFERENCES section of the article, not to CHANGE anything (X to Y). Isn't this possible on this article? My suggestion was to add a reference to http://www.deepavali.net where the difference between Diwali vs. Deepavali is explained in detail, because this question is very often coming up. I couldn't find this detailed information anywhere else. Thanks! Peter9999 (talk) 15:26, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

Peter9999: That website is non-RS / ELNO. The alleged differences between Diwali and Deepavali is someone's WP:OR / wisdom / prejudice / opinion / interesting imagination. Please review WP:RS guidelines. Your efforts to contribute are welcome though, Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 15:36, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

Not done: Per Ms. Sarah Welch SparklingPessimist ^{Scream at me!} 01:12, 12 October 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 13 October 2017

Change "Diwali or Deepavali is the Hindu festival of lights celebrated every year" to "Diwali or Deepavali is the Hindu/Sikh/Jainism and Budhism festival of lights celebrated every year".

This is also a religious celebration\holiday for all Hindu/Sikh/Jainism and Budhism religions. Just calling it a Hindu festival is misleading! 134.244.5.2 (talk) 17:11, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

 Not done, duplicate request to the above. --TheSandDoctor (talk) 17:13, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 13 October 2017

Change "Diwali or Deepavali is the Hindu festival of lights celebrated every year" to ""Diwali or Deepavali is the Indian festival of lights celebrated every year""

It's not just Hindu festival of lights. It's also a celebration for Sikhs and many more in India. So it's not right to say it's Hindu festival of lights. It's celebrated by every Indian in and out of India. 134.244.5.2 (talk) 15:19, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

Do you have a source to back up your claim 134.244.5.2? --TheSandDoctor (talk) 17:12, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Nihlus 18:47, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 17 October 2017

Edison, New Jersey, USA has declared Diwali as an official holiday for the School District. Please update the International -> United States section accordingly. Thanks... DeepShobhit (talk) 15:10, 17 October 2017 (UTC)

Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. —KuyaBriBri^Talk 15:42, 17 October 2017 (UTC)

india

india has events like this every years such as happy holi day and other special events. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 51.6.59.58 (talk) 16:16, 17 October 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 18 October 2017

Please add below lines to section Karnataka. In southern part of Karnataka Narkachathurdashi celebrations begin with waking up early in the morning, before sun rise, followed by an special oil-bath. New clothes are typically worn as a part of celebrations Simmitara (talk) 10:11, 18 October 2017 (UTC)

Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. William Avery (talk) 10:26, 18 October 2017 (UTC)

Merge

There's only 1 properly sourced line in Diwali in Gujarat which can be easily accomodated in this article. I'll suggest add it here and redirect the article to this one. -- Pankaj Jain Capankajsmilyo (talk · contribs · count) 04:00, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

It is indeed an unsourced and undue article, Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 10:05, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 19 October 2017

In the introduction both Diwali and Deepavali are used. IMHO it would increase readability to stick to one (excluding the first Diwali or Deepavali that is). Mylenereiners (talk) 11:44, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

Done Agreed. Thanks for pointing this out. —KuyaBriBri^Talk 15:05, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

Mass delete of sources and sourced content

@Brn.kevin: Welcome to wikipedia. Please do not mass delete sources and sourced content, add scripts to lead, or edit war. Please review WP:V, WP:RS and other guidelines. If you have concerns, please discuss per BRD guideline and gain consensus. Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 17:13, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 19 October 2017

The following statement under Etymology and Nomenclature- Diwali (English: /dɪˈwɑːliː/)[4] or Sanskrit dīpāvali means "series of lights",[23] and is derived from dīpam "light, lamp" and oli "glow of light".

should be replaced by- Diwali (English: /dɪˈwɑːliː/)[4] is derived from the Sanskrit word dīpāvali, which is a conjunction of two words, dīpam (clay lamps) and avali (row), that literally translates into "row of clay lamps. The lighted clay lamps not only removes the darkness of the new moon day, the day of the festival, but also symbolizes the inner spiritual light that banishes the inner darkness. 62.249.189.151 (talk) 19:29, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

Do you have a source? Please see WP:RS guidelines. Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 19:38, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 2 December 2017

"by the side of the road" should be "at the side of the road" . note: The road is not taking the action so it cannot be "by", it is the location therefore is "at" 2605:E000:9143:7000:54EA:48B9:FB1:CE55 (talk) 13:23, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

Done Although this request is overly-prescriptivist and overly-literal ("by the side of the road" is a common colloquialism and unambiguous in American English), I've changed it to accommodate other national varieties that may not understand the phrase the same way. Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 15:53, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

Diwali number of day correction, removing northern bias

There are a couple of problems with the article making it biased towards north indian customs. 1. mentions Diwali day as one day which for northern indians is the no moon or amavasya day. This is not true for all communities. Some celebrate it for 4, 5, and 6 days with all days together considered as Diwali. The most important day for our community is the Narakachaturdashi morning, 1 day before the no moon day unlike the night of no moon for some others. So point a 'main day' of diwali is going to make it biased. I have changed some of it in the introductory passage to make it less biased. 2. Mentions the festivities as 5 day afair starting on Dhanateras. In Maharashtra and Karnataka we also celebrate Vasubaras, a day for the cattle, before dhanteras which makes it a 6 day affair. Some people start it on Narakachaturdashi making it a 4 day festival. I have changed that in the introductory passage but the entire section about explanations of the days needs to be changed to make it consistant. I propose that we drop the 1st day, second day and just list it based on the names of the days and the lunar day. That way there is no confusion about which is the first day and we will not have to edit every time a person changes a day based on their reference point of the length of the festivities. I can edit this section the way I have mentioned above if nobody has problem. Will wait for a week before I do that. Kaveri (talk) 05:25, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

Tamil

{{edit protected|Diwali)) please change ((Tamil)) to ((Tamils|Tamil)) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:541:4500:1760:218:8BFF:FE74:FE4F (talk) 13:57, 29 April 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request, 21 June 2018

Time to update the dates to 2018! Per [2], Diwali is Wed, 7 Nov 2018, and Tue 6 Nov in South India. Don't forget to update the source along with the facts. 2600:8800:1880:91E:5604:A6FF:FE38:4B26 (talk) 02:35, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

 Done Thanks for pointing this out. Abecedare (talk) 03:01, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

WP:V issues?

@Talk page watchers, @Abecedare and Utcursch: The main article has many paragraphs particularly about Diwali in various regions without any sources. Some of it is repetitive, same "purchases/shopping", "fireworks", "auspicious day", "aarti", "puja"... and so on. Some of it is unencyclopedic fluff, some reads like OR/blog, tending to attract more blog-like additional content. Any suggestions on how to improve this article?, and reasonable approaches to reorganizing the sections, cleaning up this article? Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 01:42, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Yes, this article needs heavy cleanup. But before getting down to sentence-paragraph level content, it may be a good idea to decide an overall structure. Here's my initial proposal to get the discussion going:

1. Etymology and names Dates
2. History:

   When is the festival first attested in literature; any preceding festivals or seasonal significance (cf Holi, Vaisakhi); any particular period/event that led to its widespread adoption (cf Tilak and Ganesh Chaturthi)

3. Religious significance

   Religious legends and deities associated with the festival in Hinduism and other Indian religions

4. Religious rituals

   May need a better title, but essentially along the lines of current section but more focused on religious practices/calendar alone. The lede para of the section and/or possibly a terminating sub-section can briefly cover the significant regional variations in a para or two.

5. Customs and traditions

   Here is where the the associated practices like lighting firecrackers, shopping, distributing sweets, cleaning/decorating house, charity, start of financial year etc goes (Currently this part is discussed repeatedly in almost every section of the article). Notes about the economic significance and concerns about pollution, injuries, commercialization can be mentioned in a sub-section, or depending upon eventual length and content, in a separate section.

I would really advise against having a stand-alone sections on Regional variation since that just is a blaring invitations for every editor to add redundant/OR/undue content about their region. Of course, the significant regional variations (eg, different dates for the "main" celebration) can and must be mentioned briefly in the Religious significance/Religious rituals sections.

For similar reasons, I would argue for removing the Outise India section While I can imagine countries with deep historical association with Hinduism/Hindu diaspora (eg, Nepal, Fiji, the Caribbean, Indonesia) having some particular style of celebrating Diwali that is worth noting in preceding sections, as far as the US, UK, Australia, NZ etc are concerned, the article is saying little more "Indian diaspora and some locals celebrate it", which can be adequately covered in <1 sentence in the article lede.

Abecedare (talk) 02:52, 13 August 2018 (UTC) (Replaced "Etymology and names" with "Dates". See below. Abecedare (talk) 04:18, 13 August 2018 (UTC) )

That is along the lines I was thinking too. Spot on about the diaspora thing, and I hope folks will reflect on this and we can agree to trim it down. Our goal is not to romanticize or offend the Hindus/Jains/Sikhs/whoever here, but to evolve this into a better quality encyclopedic article where the reader and reliably sourced information is the priority. Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 04:02, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Quick addition: Thinking over, I don't think we even need an "Etymology and names" section, since the names used in English language (Diwali, Deepavali) are few enough to be given in the first sentence (with possibly the spelling variants in the footnotes) and their etymology is simple to be given there too. The non-English names are best handled through the inter-wiki links in the sidebar. Instead it may be more useful to have a short Date section explaining when the festival is celebrated; right now that basic information is buried quite deep in the Description and rituals section. Abecedare (talk) 04:15, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

Abecedare: I like the footnote idea, and for the sake of article's stability perhaps we should put all the spelling variants into footnotes as well (am fine with taking all the scripts out). I have begun moving the date section because indeed the "when" ought to described early. I am reading through the sources and a challenge here is the variety of regional names for each day, e.g. Annakut, Govardhan puja, Kartik Shukla Pratipada, etc for the fourth day of the festival which the older version describes under Padwa, Balipratipada (the day after Diwali night, see pp. 63-64, Tracy Pintchman (2005) source). Maybe we can use the footnotes approach for the diverse nomenclature all through, sticking in the main article to terms more common in the English RS. Wiki-sister projects can address local terms and usage better than we can. The various scripts and names are just distraction when our focus is better placed into the real substance, the "what, how, why, where, when, who" with context. I will reflect on all this for a bit. Suggestions welcome, Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 03:03, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

Mukherjee (2018) source

The older version of this article was too close in some parts to the Diwali article in this source (pp. 108-110). I have left some of those sentences alone because the edit diffs suggest the wikipedia version is older (pre-2018) than the 2018 publication date of the source. @Diannaa and Abecedare: if there is anything more we need to do more than this note, please let me know. FWIW, we have now cited this source in the article too. Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 22:29, 19 August 2018 (UTC)

The book was released in June 2018, and it is easy to confirm that no overlapping content was added to the article in the whole of 2018. So either the author copied from wikipedia without proper attribution, or there is a slim chance that both he and a wikipedia contributor copied language from a common source. If we wish to be truly diligent, we could quickly check for the latter possibility by looking up the five sources the book's article cites.

And assuming the last part checks out, it may be best to avoid the book as a source esp. since its write-up doesn't appear to be saying anything that we won't be able to find in a number of other sources. Of course, this last part is just my personal preference and not based on any explicit wikipedia policy; so I'll leave the final decision about that to you. Cheers. Abecedare (talk) 01:20, 20 August 2018 (UTC)

Abecedare: I already checked the five sources Mukherjee cites. No copyvio/plag overlap or issues there in either the old or the new version. We can easily take out Mukherjee "The Himalayas: An Encyclopedia..." source cite, as it is cited only three times. Of these, only one is a unique cite and for other two it is a second or third source. The unique cite is about Diwali being called Swanti / Tihar in the Himalayan country of Nepal. We can find alternates for it. That may be the better thing to do here, to avoid the plausible WP:Circular issues though the Mukherjee source has been edited by Hund and Wren, both professors. Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 03:02, 20 August 2018 (UTC)

First Paragraph: Serious Formatting Issues

Hello! The first paragraph of this (locked) article seems to have some serious formatting issues. Parties with access, please address. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.78.192.54 (talk) 14:39, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing that out. I've fixed it but note that the article is not protected and you can edit it. --regentspark (comment) 15:14, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 7 November 2018

"

Reasoning:- I am a student learning Sankrit and the vedas though not an authority. It is verifiable that there is no distinction between the concepts or words of "from" and "of" in Sanskrit similar to French. It only depends on the context. Using the clearly defined English-word "from" distorts the intended meaning of the prayer or shloka. The intention is to understand "order in the chaos" (approximately) hence implying there is just 1 entity that is to be looked at in another point of view. But the previous translation conveys the concept "transition" (from) which implies the existence of 2 entities (move FROM 1 to another) which defeats the very purpose of this prayer. Please contact a reputed authority who has been "following" the original Sanskrit tradition of ancient India, to verify the intention of the prayer. Literal Translation from sanskrit to english will have many barriers not excluding the language culture. Similarly, shanti has no direct english equivalent, hence is better to left as is. shanti (silence/peace etc...) I've learnt this in my course taught in Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur from Dr. Anuradha Choudry. Santosh Satvik (talk) 10:46, 7 November 2018 (UTC)

 Not done. It's not clear what changes you want made. Please make a precise request and provide citations to reliable sources to back up any claims. –Deacon Vorbis (carbon • videos) 13:28, 7 November 2018 (UTC)

Diwali is not the appropriate pronunciation...

Technically, the light of festival, which is known as Diwali, in the whole India, modern word or device word, of the Sankskrit real word, Deepavali which is still uses by the Deccan region people but in the North India, the word is widely called as Diwali.

It is the same festival with a spelling difference. Etymologically, Deepavali is a Sanskrit word meaning row of lamps. Diwali is a corrupted form of Deepavali used in North Indian languages. Interestingly, South Indian states, Malaysia and Singapore uses the etymologically correct name, Deepavali. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 42.60.30.128 (talk) 14:27, 8 November 2018 (UTC)

We use the common name as article titles. Deepavali is given as an alternative name and a more detailed explanation is in the history section. --regentspark (comment) 14:34, 8 November 2018 (UTC)

In south India, it is Deepavali not Diwali. Sivamarimuthu (talk) 06:03, 10 November 2018 (UTC)

References