A sati’s curse means the Sammoo village of Hamirpur district will not celebrate Diwali even this year — a tradition it has followed for many centuries.

The deliberate darkening on the day of the festival of lights has been followed by the locals ever since a woman burned herself on her husband’s pyre and cursed the day, Veena Devi, a deputy to the village head, said on Saturday.

The villagers in Sammoo, about 25 km from the district headquarters, at the most are allowed to light diyas, but there is a tacit understanding against the bursting of crackers and indulging in extravagance. Any deviation from the norm forebodes disaster, locals say.

According to the villagers, a few hundred years ago, a pregnant woman was preparing for Diwali when the body of her husband, a soldier in the local

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