Diwali Lakshmi Pujan

Lakshmi Pujan falls on the Amavasya of Kartik — the darkest night of that month — and the household answers the dark with lamps. The rite itself is unhurried but short. What surrounds it is not: the floor is washed, a rangoli is drawn at the threshold, the doorway is hung with mango leaf and marigold, and every lamp in the house is lit before the pandit takes his seat.

Ganesha is invoked first, as at the beginning of any Hindu rite. Lakshmi is then received into the house the way a guest is received — welcomed, seated, bathed, dressed, offered food and honoured through the sixteen upacharas of the shodashopchar puja. In most households Saraswati is worshipped in the same sequence, and the account books, the new ledgers and the tools of the family’s livelihood are set before the altar for the chopda pujan.

The hour matters more here than in most home pujas. The sankalp is traditionally taken in the pradosh kaal, the stretch that begins at sunset, and many families further prefer the sthir lagna that falls within it. Your pandit sends the window calculated for your own city a day ahead, so the family is seated before it opens rather than during it.