Krishan Shankar and his family are going to head to Suva next week to do their Diwali shopping.

Mr Shandkar said he has put aside $500 for Diwali shopping.

The 25-year-old barber at Pacific Harbour said he had been saving since July.

“Last week Monday, we started cleaning our house,” Mr Shandkar said.

On Friday he said his wife, Shinal Chaudary, 21, washed all the curtains and all the linen.

This week Monday Mr Shandkar helped his father scrubbing their verandah using the water blaster.

“On Wednesday next week, we will start making sweets, this includes; gulagula, barafi, lakari, and many other.”

He said on Thursday they would start decorating their house.

“We will buy balloons and four sets of Diwali lights.”

For their jewellery shopping they would be going to buy it from Cumming Street in Suva.

“We would also be buying new clothes including the saree and kameez,” he said.

Mr Shandkar said this year’s pooja would start from 3pm to 4pm because of the curfew hours.

Before, he said it used to be from 6pm to7pm.

Curfew is from 11pm to 5am.

“Due the current pandemic, the celebration will be different from the previous years, and there will be not much movement.

“Last year we had a lot of people who came to celebrate Diwali with us.

“We have invited other religious friends and families to come and celebrate Diwali with us.”

Mr Shandkar said Diwali is the festival of lights; it is also the time to repent and forget the past.

Diwali marks the return of Lord Ram to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile. People clean their houses, deck them up with lights and decorations to celebrate the day.

This year, Diwali falls on November 14, 2020 (Saturday). The festivities begin from November 13, which is Dhanteras (Friday).

Diwali is also followed by Govardhan Pooja on November 15 (Sunday) and Bhaiya Dooj on November 16 (Monday).

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