Diwali Festival lasts for five days. They are known as Dhantrayodashi, Narakchaturdashi, Laxmipujan (New Moon Day), Bali Pratipada, and Bhaubij.
On Dhantrayodashi ("Dhan" = wealth; "Trayodashi" = thirteenth Day) people clean the portion in front of the house and with powders of different colours make beautiful designs on the ground called "rangoli". The women prepare sweet and pungent foods. Three oil lamps are lit and Divali is on ("line of lit lamps"). Lord Ram 's Return
On this day, Lord Ram (the incarnation of Lord Vishnu in the treta Yug) returned to his capital Ayodhya after the exile of fourteen years. Thousands of Years have passed by, and yet so ideal is the kingdom of Ram (Ram Rajya) that it is remembered to this day. Ravan has been eliminated along with most of his rakshasas - by Lord Ram and his brother Lakshman, and their army of monkeys. Sita has been returned to her husband Ram, and they now make their way to Ayodhya in triumph and glory.
Kaikeyi, meanwhile, has done enough penance for the misery caused to the family and the kingdom. Bharat had refused to sit on the throne, and has kept vigil as a regent, and had told Ram that if he did not return on the last day of the fourteen years' exile, he would immolate himself. Consequently, to commemorate the return of Ram, Sita and Lakshman to Ayodhya people celebrate Diwali with the bursting of crackers and by lighting up their houses with earthen diyas or other lamps in the grandest style, year after that year.
