Diwali: Hindu festival of lights celebrations – in pictures | Life and style

Ahmedabad, India

Merchants carry out rituals throughout Chopda Pujan, a mass prayer ceremony devoted to the worship of account books, for Diwali on the Swaminarayan Gurukul. On at the present time ledgers and new account books are opened by the mercantile neighborhood after a particular prayer and worship earlier than the idols of Lord Ganesha and the Hindu goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, to earn their blessings

{Photograph}: Ajit Solanki/AP