Diwali (Jain holiday)

Refers to an important Jain festival that ends the ritual year. The lights of the Hindu festival of the same name are reinterpreted as a commemoration of the passing into nirvana of Mahavira, the most recent of the Jain Tirthankaras, or saints. The lighting of the lamps is seen as a material substitute for the light of holy knowledge that was extinguished with Mhavira's death. The festival occurs on the full-moon day of the month of Karttika (October-November).