What's at stake:
After years of back-and-forth efforts to make Diwali an official state holiday in California, community members say recognizing the festival is a no-brainer.
At the Hindu Temple of Fresno last year, Armaan Arora celebrated Diwali alongside community members who gathered for prayers, songs, food and other traditions marking the festival of lights.
Anyone is welcome to celebrate Diwali, Arora says, regardless of whether the festival is part of your formal religion.
“Aside from the prayer and the story of the festival, it’s really about using colors on your floor to make designs, lighting everything up and gift-giving.”
Arora compares Diwali to Christmas because both holidays bring families and loved ones together. Both holidays also include religious traditions as well as celebrations that go beyond worship.
During Diwali, people light oil lamps called diyas, decorate their homes with outdoor lights and gather for elaborate meals featuring foods such as gulab jamun, samosas and puri.
While Diwali has roots in Hindu traditions, it is also celebrated by Sikh, Jain and Buddhist communities, each with their own traditions and stories, making it one of the most widely observed festivals across South Asia.
This year Diwali will fall on Nov. 8, but the date varies each year, similar to Lunar New Year, and is based on the Hindu lunar calendar.
Yet, California is having a hard time officially recognizing the holiday. And community members who celebrate Diwali in Fresno don’t understand why.
Back and forth
The debate over recognition has gone back and forth for years.
Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 268 into law, making Diwali eligible to become California’s 12th state-recognized holiday.
The law would have allowed some state employees and school staff who celebrate Diwali to take the day as a paid holiday. Public schools and community colleges also could have closed, while teachers could have incorporated lessons and activities recognizing the holiday.
But the law quickly faced a legal challenge from the San Francisco Taxpayers Association, which filed a petition in Sacramento County Superior Court arguing that recognizing Diwali would be too costly and would give preferential treatment to a religious holiday. The group argued that the law violated provisions of both the U.S. and California constitutions.
The association estimated that potential school and state facility closures, along with paid holidays for state employees, could cost California taxpayers as much as $68.8 million, according to court documents.
Last month, a Sacramento judge ruled in favor of the taxpayers group, effectively blocking California from adding Diwali as a state holiday. The judge ruled that the bill’s language relied too heavily on the festival’s theological and spiritual heritage rather than framing the holiday in secular terms.
Puneet Kaur, senior state policy manager at the Sikh Coalition, said the legislation included multiple faith communities that celebrate Diwali.
“In our opinion, the lawsuit incorrectly characterizes AB 268 as favoring a single religion, when in fact this holiday is observed by multiple faiths and cultures,” Kaur said. “Moreover, it does not require anyone to participate in a religious observance or mandate statewide school closures—it simply provides recognition and accommodation for communities whose traditions have long been underrepresented in the public calendar.”
This accommodation, Kaur said, already affords other religious, cultural and heritage observances, such as Lunar New Year, Juneteenth, and Native American Day, in accordance with the California State Department of Human Resources personal holiday policy.
Kaur said the Sikh Coalition was disappointed by the court’s decision, particularly because AB 268 passed with broad bipartisan and multifaith support.
The legal fight comes as other efforts to recognize Diwali continue. The California State Assembly has since adopted House Resolution 137, recognizing Diwali on Nov. 8 this year.. Unlike AB 268, the resolution does not establish Diwali as a paid state holiday.
Why those who celebrate Diwali want a state recognition
Dr. Veena Rani Howard, the endowed chair in Jain and Hindu Dharma at Fresno State, said the Diwali debate should be considered in the broader context of how California recognizes other cultural and religious holidays.
“If one is concerned about one religion, then none of the religions should be recognized,” Howard said. “Diwali is very open to everyone, every caste, every color, every ethnicity, every religion.”
Ultimately, Howard said she hopes the discussion around Diwali focuses less on its religious classification and more on the history and cultural traditions that bring communities together.
Diwali celebrations in Fresno, she said, have become a way for people across religious and cultural backgrounds to come together.
Howard said she brings her students to Diwali celebrations at local temples, where they see traditional oil lamps, rangoli designs and cultural performances. The experience, she said, gives students an opportunity to engage with a tradition outside their own backgrounds.
That openness, Howard said, is central to understanding Diwali beyond its religious roots and state recognition. It can also give South Asian communities a greater sense of belonging.
“The world is going through such dark times,” Howard said. “We have so many challenges, and I think to come together, for all communities to be uplifted, celebrating light, love and community coming together beyond our differences, that’s how I see Diwali.”
That sense of inclusion, she said, is particularly important for young people growing up in California and navigating both their cultural traditions and American life.
Arora, who’s from Punjab, India and a junior at Fresno State, is currently taking Howard’s class on Hinduism.
“Even growing up back home, I saw that Diwali was kind of dwindling away,” Arora said.
“People were not getting together as much anymore and being here, there’s nostalgia involved about your own culture back home.”
Arora’s uncle is Indian and his aunt is Mexican, and most of his family in the U.S. is Mexican. Because of that, Diwali hasn’t always been a major celebration in his family.
Yet, Arora said Diwali should be a state holiday because it would give everyone an opportunity to enjoy the festivities while recognizing the contributions South Asians have made to California’s culture, economy and industries. He said those contributions are especially noticeable in the central San Joaquin Valley.
“It’ll be a festival for everyone,” Arora said, “not just Indians.”
‘It’s just about good overcoming evil’
At Fresno’s BAPS Shri Swaminarayan mandir, Diwali is celebrated through both religious traditions and youth-led programming designed to pass those traditions on to the next generation.
“It’s just about good overcoming evil, choosing light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance,” Shah said. “I think these are values that are not just specific to a specific faith or a religion.”
Zeal Shah, BAPS temple outreach administrator, said the temple’s celebration includes Unkut, an offering of vegetarian dishes prepared by devotees, followed by Govardhan puja, a ritual centered on humility and gratitude.
The celebration also includes the Kids Diwali Celebration, or KDC, which is organized entirely by young people ages 7 to 16.
“The theme of this changes every year, so that’s why it’s so exciting for the community overall because every year it changes.”
Shah said the two parts of the celebration highlight Diwali’s generational connections, with longstanding religious traditions taking place alongside activities created by younger members of the community.
“The first aspect, the celebration of or doing the unkut as well as the Govardhan puja is rooted in ancient devotional practices,” Shah said. “Whereas the second one, it’s almost like we’re handing it off to the next generation to make it their own, basically.”
The youth-led celebration helps younger people understand the cultural traditions they may have grown up practicing without always knowing their meaning.
The KDC has also drawn people from outside the temple’s congregation, Shah said. Community members who do not routinely visit the mandir have attended the event to learn more about Diwali and its traditions.
Shah said state recognition of Diwali would similarly signal that California accepts the cultures and traditions of the communities that celebrate it.
“I would say it would be a great way to show acceptance of the culture, as opposed to just tolerance of the culture,” Shah said. “And I think there is a fine line between the two, and just having this recognition would be an ultimate sign of true acceptance, in my opinion.”
