Western India

The western states of India celebrate Diwali for four days, the preparations for which begin at least 15 days prior to the final celebration.People engage themselves in a month long shopping and making preparations for the occasion. Markets all over make arrangements to cater the month requirements of Diwali shoppers and thus in way boost their business transactions as well.The Gujarati community starts celebrations in different ways. Just the nights preceding the festival, they start their celebration by creating various designs with natural powder colors (called Rangoli ) in their verandas. These designs are depiction of images associated to the festival like the deities, sun and flowers. Images of small footprints are also drawn over individual doorsteps which are supposed to be a way of inviting Goddess Lakshmi to the house.