Diwali falls on Sunday, 08-Nov-2026. Five formats for the notice board, the staff circular and the people who keep working, with your State's rules on pay set out beside them.
Five formats. Pay the bonus with the Diwali bonus letters.
For the notice board. Diwali printed, every other day a field, and a line naming the State law the list rests on.
The same facts for email, with the Sunday question answered: a substitute day, or none, as your policy says.
For a plant that cannot stop, a ward, a store or a kitchen. It names the shift and what your State pays, with a consent version for a woman on a night shift.
Records the day off given in place of the festival worked, so it is used rather than lost, and never counted as leave, the point behind the sandwich leave guide.
The year's national and festival holidays, with Diwali as one of the festivals you pick, ready to display.
Attendo (formerly Petpooja Payroll) builds holidays as templates and assigns each branch its State's list, Diwali week included.
Most of Diwali is your choice, and the notice records it. Diwali is not a holiday by law for a private employer by name; it is one because you put it on your festival list. The formats walk you through the two places the law does bite: who works, and what they are paid.
No labour Code fixes a festival holiday list for most employees. State law does, through a National and Festival Holidays Act in some States and the Shops and Establishments Act in others. Each fixes a few national days, then allows a number of festivals chosen for the establishment.
Who chooses differs. In Karnataka the employer picks from the Act's list after consulting the employees, sends it to the Inspector, and displays it in Kannada and English before 31 December. In Tamil Nadu the Inspector specifies them. In Maharashtra they are agreed with the workers before the year begins.
What working the day pays differs too, which matters for a hospital or a store open through the festival. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu give the choice of twice the wages or a substituted holiday; Maharashtra gives double pay and the day off. Who is covered differs as well: no Act reaches managers, and Karnataka exempted hospitals and hotels on condition that holidays with wages are given in lieu. It is a different rule from overtime under the labour codes.
And the date itself comes from a list that does not bind you. The DoPT list puts Diwali on Sunday, 08-Nov-2026 for Central Government offices, and even lets them keep it on Naraka Chaturdasi where the State Government's own offices close that day alone. Your notice should say which list it rests on.
Each one is a question staff will ask the day the notice goes up.
| State | Holidays | Who picks | Working the day | Provision | Outside |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Karnataka | 10 | Employer, consulted | 2x, or a day off | Act of 1963, s.3, s.5 | Managers, some trades |
| Tamil Nadu | 9 | The Inspector | 2x, or a day off | Act of 1958, s.3, s.5 | Managers |
| Maharashtra | 8 | By agreement | 2x and a day off | Act of 2017, s.18(7) | Factories |
| Your State | [fill in] | [fill in] | [fill in] | [your Act] | [check] |
| Diwali (Deepavali) | 08-Nov-2026 | Sunday | One of the festivals | DoPT O.M., para 6 | Format 01 |
Diwali (Deepavali) falls on Sunday, 08-Nov-2026 on the Central Government's list of holidays for 2026. The list binds Central Government offices, and gives them no substitute day for a festival on a weekly off.
Source: DoPT Office Memorandum F.No.12/2/2023-JCA, 03-Jul-2025, paras 3.2 and 6Karnataka allows a private employer's staff 26 January, 15 August, 2 October and seven other holidays, of which 1 May and 1 November are two. The other five are festivals picked from the Act's list after consulting the employees.
Source: Karnataka Industrial Establishments (National and Festival Holidays) Act, 1963, s.3(1) and provisoA worker required to work on a festival holiday is paid double the daily average wages and also gets leave on another day in lieu. It binds establishments of ten or more workers, and not factories or managerial and supervisory staff.
Source: Maharashtra Shops and Establishments Act, 2017, s.18(7), proviso; s.1(3), s.2(4), s.3(11)No State Act read for this pack names it. It is a holiday because it is on your festival list, so the notice should say which list. In Karnataka, use the Schedule's Naraka Chathurdashi or Bali Padyami.
Women work before 6 a.m. or after 7 p.m. only with written consent and the prescribed safeguards, transport home among them. In a Maharashtra shop the window is 7 a.m. to 9.30 p.m.
Dropping a substitute day you used to give, or changing the list, the hours or a shift, needs twenty-one days' notice to workers under section 40 of the Industrial Relations Code: by 17-Oct-2026.
Working a festival holiday pays differently in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. A multi-State rota needs each State's rule, on each Act's own wages; Karnataka's and Tamil Nadu's take in allowances that an overtime base under the Code leaves out.
Tamil Nadu requires written notice at least 24 hours before, signed with the date and time and copied to the Labour Inspector. The prescribed form is Form V-A in the Tamil Nadu Rules, 1959.
Managers are outside all three Acts, travelling staff outside Tamil Nadu's and factories outside Maharashtra's. A notice to work should follow each Act only for the people it covers; others work the holiday on their contract terms.
One paragraph and a date
Five formats, three States read
Then serve the notices to work, and run the bonus payout checklist before 30-Nov-2026. Attendo tracks holidays and comp-off.
Attendo (formerly Petpooja Payroll) is payroll and attendance software used by 40,000+ businesses across manufacturing, corporate offices, retail, hospitals and education. General guidance, not legal advice. This pack is one of our free templates for HR teams, each built from the law rather than from other templates.
The notice, the circular, the notice to work, the substituted day and the annual list, in editable Word. Free, and no card.
