Diwali — or Deepawali — is approaching this month, on Oct. 20. And the Bay Area has a host of events honoring the festival observed by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists.

Diwali, also known as the Festival of Lights, is a five-day event, with particular celebrations on the third day . As Urmila Ramakrishnan wrote for KQED in 2020 , the holiday is a “celebration of light over darkness, unity over conflict.”

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The Bay Area is home to some of the largest Hindu populations in the country, and the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metro area has the third-highest number of Hindu congregations in the nation, according to 2020 data from the U.S. Religion Census.

But Diwali is also celebrated by a diverse range of people and cultures. (If you’re look

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