Diwali 2026 falls on Sunday 8 November. Diwali on the Square in London is on Sunday 25 October and Diwali at Times Square in New York is on Saturday 24 October, a full two weeks earlier. That gap is the whole story of Diwali around the world this year.
The biggest public parties abroad are held on whichever weekend the city hands to the organisers. Families who book flights for Diwali week land after the stage has been packed up. I call it the two-week trap. So which Diwali are you actually flying for?
I checked the organiser and city pages for every place in this Diwali around the world guide. Where a date is not announced, I have said so and given last year’s pattern, marked as last year. Almost every event is free, so the real cost is flights, visas and hotels.
The Two-Week Trap in One Table
Read the last column first. Anything marked “before” is over by the time India lights its diyas.
| City | Main event | 2026 date | Against Diwali (8 Nov) |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | Diwali at Times Square | Sat 24 Oct | 15 days before |
| London | Diwali on the Square | Sun 25 Oct | 14 days before |
| Leicester | Diwali Day, Cossington Recreation Ground | Sun 8 Nov | On the day |
| Trinidad | Divali Nagar, Chaguanas | 30 Oct to 7 Nov | Ends the night before |
| Singapore | Little India light-up | From 3 Oct | Starts 5 weeks before |
| Kuala Lumpur | Brickfields Deepavali bazaar | 9 Oct to 7 Nov | Ends 1 day before |
| Dubai | Fireworks, Al Seef and Global Village | Not announced (last year 17 to 26 Oct 2025) | Expected around the day |
| Melbourne | Victorian Festival of Diwali | Fri 6 and Sat 7 Nov | 1 to 2 days before |
| Mauritius | Divali public holiday | Sun 8 Nov | On the day |
| Fiji | Diwali public holiday | Mon 9 Nov | 1 day after |
| Kathmandu | Tihar | Sat 7 to Wed 11 Nov | On the actual days |
Seen like this, the Diwali around the world calendar splits in two. Western cities with one big stage go early. Places where the festival is a public holiday or a neighbourhood habit stay close to the real date.
At home, Durga Puja in Kolkata and the nine nights of Navratri and Dussehra never move off the tithi. Abroad, the public event drifts.
Britain: One Square and One Golden Mile
London, Sunday 25 October
Diwali on the Square is the Mayor of London’s free event at Trafalgar Square, 1pm to 7pm, with no ticket and no booking. It opens with a mass dance of about 200 performers. Then the stage runs music and dance from London’s Hindu, Sikh and Jain communities, with sari tying, yoga and vegetarian food stalls around the edges.
One honest warning. This is a stage show in a cold, open square, and the photo above shows the usual weather. Reach by 12.30pm, take the Tube to Charing Cross and carry a rain jacket. For the other days, use my guide to the best places to visit in England.
For the real Diwali night, go to the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Neasden. Entry is free, the marble temple is lit up, and the Annakut, a mountain of food offered for the Hindu New Year, follows just after Diwali. I could not find the 2026 timings, so check the temple website. Southall Broadway and Ealing Road in Wembley are for mithai and last minute shopping, with no headline event I could confirm.
Leicester, Sunday 8 November
Leicester is the one British stop on any Diwali around the world list that sits on the real date. Belgrave Road, called the Golden Mile for its jewellers and sari shops, is strung with lights every year. But the format has changed. Last year’s celebration was scaled back over crowd safety, and the separate switch-on night is gone. The council says the lights will go on “without ceremony” two weeks before Diwali Day, so around 25 October. There will be no public fireworks.
Diwali Day itself moves into Cossington Recreation Ground, just off the Golden Mile, with a stage, food vendors, craft stalls and a children’s funfair. The Wheel of Light, a big illuminated ferris wheel, returns to Belgrave Road. Timings were not published when I wrote this.
The train from London St Pancras takes a little over an hour. I would not fly from India only for this. If you are already in England that weekend, it is the best Diwali evening in the country, and a Gujarati thali on Belgrave Road is reason enough to go.
New York, New Jersey and the Caribbean
Times Square, Saturday 24 October
Diwali at Times Square gives you the most photographed picture of Diwali around the world: diyas and bhangra under the billboards. Admission is free with no ticket. Past editions have run from afternoon into the night around Duffy Square, with stalls, a diya lighting and a concert to finish. The 2026 schedule was not out when I checked. It is one loud evening on a few blocks of Broadway, nothing more.
New York City public schools do treat Diwali as a holiday now. But it falls on a Sunday, and the official 2026-27 school calendar shows no Diwali closure at all.
The everyday Diwali of this region is across the Hudson. India Square on Newark Avenue in Jersey City is a short PATH train ride from Manhattan, and Oak Tree Road in Edison is lined with sweet shops and jewellers. I could not confirm a street festival date for either. My notes on things to do in New Jersey will help if you are visiting family. Worth it if you live nearby. Not worth a flight.
Trinidad’s Divali Nagar
Trinidad and Tobago spells it Divali and gives it a national public holiday. The event to know is Divali Nagar in Chaguanas: nine nights of stage shows, food stalls and craft booths that end on the eve of the festival. Local press gives the 2026 run as 30 October to 7 November. On Divali night, villages such as Felicity light thousands of clay deyas on frames of bent bamboo.
From India it is a hard trip, with no direct flights and a transit visa to arrange. For NRIs in the United States or Canada, it is the most unusual Diwali around the world within a short flight.
South East Asia: Lights That Stay On for Weeks
Singapore
If the trap worries you, Singapore is the safest bet for Diwali around the world, because there is no single day to miss. The Little India light-up along Serangoon Road went live on Saturday 3 October. It covers about 2 km and glows from 7pm to midnight daily. The Festival Village on Campbell Lane, a bazaar for diyas, garlands, bangles and murukku, runs from 10 October to 8 November. Walking through all of it costs nothing.
Deepavali is a public holiday on Sunday 8 November. About the Monday, the Ministry of Manpower wording is precise: 9 November is a public holiday “if your rest day falls on 8 November”. For most office workers that means a long weekend. For shift workers it may not.
Go on a weekday evening after 7.30pm. Start at Little India MRT, walk Serangoon Road up to Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple and eat at Tekka Centre. The last two weekends before Deepavali are packed to a slow shuffle.
Kuala Lumpur
Brickfields, KL’s Little India, sits right beside KL Sentral station. The Deepavali bazaar runs from 9 October to 7 November, 10am to midnight. One change: instead of the usual stretch of Jalan Tun Sambanthan, the 122 Brickfields stalls are in the Kompleks Tun Sambanthan car park.
Deepavali is a public holiday in every Malaysian state except Sarawak, and Monday 9 November is a replacement holiday in Kuala Lumpur. Malls compete over giant kolam made of coloured rice, like the one above. Pair Brickfields with Batu Caves, a commuter train ride from KL Sentral, and see my list of Kuala Lumpur attractions for the other days.
Dubai, Mauritius and the Far Pacific
Of all the Diwali around the world options, Dubai is the shortest flight from India, under four hours. It is also the one with no confirmed dates. Last year the city ran a ten day programme from 17 to 26 October 2025, wrapped around Diwali on 20 October, with fireworks at Al Seef on Dubai Creek and at Global Village. I expect the same shape around 8 November, but wait for the official calendar before booking.
What you can count on is gold offers in the Deira Gold Souk, mithai in Meena Bazaar and hotel Diwali dinners. It is shopping with fireworks on the side, not a street festival. My overview of the seven emirates of the UAE covers the sightseeing.
Mauritius is the quiet entry in Diwali around the world. Divali is a public holiday there on Sunday 8 November, with no central event to chase. Drive through Triolet in the north after dark, where whole lanes of houses are outlined in lights, and accept the sweets a neighbour hands you. Go for the beaches and treat Divali as a bonus evening.
Fiji has its Diwali public holiday on Monday 9 November. Melbourne’s Victorian Festival of Diwali is at Fed Square on Friday 6 and Saturday 7 November. Both are lovely if you live there. Neither justifies a 12 to 20 hour journey from India.
Nepal: The Neighbour on the Actual Days
Every other entry in this Diwali around the world list is a diaspora event. Tihar is a country celebrating its own festival. It runs from Saturday 7 to Wednesday 11 November, with Laxmi Puja on Sunday 8 November, the same evening as Diwali in India. Dogs are garlanded on Kukur Tihar. Children go door to door singing Deusi Bhailo for coins and sel roti. The old squares of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur fill with butter lamps and marigold.
There is no ticket, no stage and no visa for Indians. Delhi to Kathmandu is under two hours by air. The downside is that banks and offices shut and buses thin out. My Nepal trekking guide for October and November explains how to plan around these days.
Visas and Fares for Diwali Around the World
Sort the countries into three piles. These were the rules when I checked, so confirm on each country’s official immigration site before paying for anything.
No advance visa for Indian passport holders: Nepal (carry a passport or voter ID), Malaysia (visa-free for 30 days until 31 December 2026, with an online arrival card), Mauritius (free visa on arrival, up to 60 days), Fiji (up to four months) and Trinidad and Tobago (up to 90 days). More options are in my list of visa-free countries for Indians.
Easy visa in advance: Singapore, through an authorised agent, costs S$30 plus the agent’s charge and takes three to five working days. The UAE needs a tourist e-visa, unless you hold a valid US, UK or Schengen visa, which gets you 14 days on arrival.
Hard visa: the UK Standard Visitor visa costs £135, roughly Rs 16,500, and usually takes about three weeks. The US visitor visa has a US$185 fee and interview waits that run into months. Both famous squares are realistic for 2026 only if the visa is already in your passport.
Fares decide the rest of any Diwali around the world plan. Fares out of India climb for departures between Thursday 5 and Saturday 7 November. In the other direction, flights into India from the Gulf, Britain and North America are at their worst in the week before Diwali, when NRIs fly home. So the trap has one benefit: a trip from 22 to 27 October dodges both peaks.
Match Your Leave Dates to a City
Here is Diwali around the world sorted the way most of us plan, by the dates the office will give.
- 23 to 26 October: London for Trafalgar Square on the 25th, or New York for Times Square on the 24th. From London, add an evening in Leicester, where the street lights should be on by then.
- 30 October to 2 November: Singapore or Kuala Lumpur. Lights and bazaars are in full flow and fares are still normal.
- 6 to 9 November, Diwali weekend: Kathmandu for Tihar, Leicester on the 8th, Mauritius, or the last bazaar night in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur on the 7th.
- 10 November onwards: Kathmandu until Bhai Tika on the 11th.
If your leave is fixed to Diwali week, cross both famous squares off the list today. And if none of these fit, the same week lines up with autumn colour in Japan.
Where I Would Spend My Own Leave
Kathmandu, without much debate. It is the only place on this list where the festival happens on the right days, in homes and lanes, with no stage and no sponsor banners, and where an Indian traveller needs no visa.
My second choice is Singapore, for families who want easy logistics, good food and lights that are certain to be on whenever they land. I would stand in Trafalgar Square only if I already held a UK visa and had another reason to be in England in late October.
For me, Diwali around the world is at its best where people celebrate for themselves and visitors are simply welcome to join. Check the date before you check the fare, and you will not land two weeks late.
