Short answers, pulled from the story.
Mahavira attained final liberation in the year 527 BCE, which Jains commemorate as the origin of Diwali. This event marks the spiritual beginning of the festival when 18 kings gathered to issue a proclamation that lamps be lit in remembrance of his teachings.
In the Hindu epic Ramayana, Diwali became the moment Lord Rama returned to his kingdom of Ayodhya after 14 years of exile. The people of Ayodhya lit earthen lamps to guide him home through the darkness, establishing a core theme of the triumph of dharma over adharma.
The five-day celebration of Diwali begins two days before the new moon known as amavasya and extends two days after. The third day, Lakshmi Pujan, is the climax of the festival where homes and temples are aglow with lights and families gather to welcome the goddess Lakshmi.
In 2013, about 10,000 tons of fireworks were sold to merchants for the Diwali season with an equivalent retail value of 10 billion rupees. Online shopping alone was forecasted to exceed 300 billion rupees during the 2017 Diwali season with about two-thirds of Indian households spending between 10,000 and 20,000 rupees to celebrate.
During the 2023 celebration, New Delhi briefly took the top spot in the world for air pollution with an air quality index of 680 on one night. Fine dust particles from fireworks packed with chemicals like copper, zinc, sodium, lead, magnesium, and cadmium affected the environment and put people's health at stake.
In October 2025, a Diwali celebration in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India, broke the Guinness World Record for the largest display of oil lamps. The event featured 2,617,615 lamps displayed on the eve of Diwali to underscore the festival's enduring appeal.