Quick answer: Egaas Bagwal — also written Igas, and called Budhi Diwali, the old Diwali — is Uttarakhand's own festival of lights, held eleven days after Diwali on Kartik Shukla Ekadashi. In 2026 Diwali falls on 8 November and Egaas Bagwal falls on Friday, 20 November. The defining ritual is the Bhailo: a rope or bundle of pine bound and set alight, then swung in burning circles in the dark. Cattle are washed, oiled and garlanded, and households cook arsa, singal, puri and swala.
There is a particular kind of festival that exists only because another festival already happened somewhere else. Egaas is that. The plains put the diyas away on the ninth; the hills take theirs out again on the twentieth, and celebrate harder.
What Egaas Bagwal Is
Bagwal is simply the Garhwali and Kumaoni word for Diwali. Egaas (Igas) comes from ekadashi, the eleventh day of the waxing fortnight — which is when this one falls. Put together, the name means, more or less, "the eleventh-day Diwali."
The date is lunar, not solar, so unlike Harela or Khatarua it moves with the moon. It always sits eleven days after Diwali, on Kartik Shukla Ekadashi — the same day as Devutthana Ekadashi, when Vishnu is understood to wake from the four months of Chaturmas and the wedding season reopens in the hills.
In agricultural terms the timing is not arbitrary either. By late November the harvest is in. Diwali arrives in the middle of the work; Egaas arrives after it, which is part of why the hill version is the one with the bigger feast.
The Two Legends
Two explanations are given for the eleven days, and both are told seriously by people who know the other one exists.
The late news. Word of Rama's return to Ayodhya travelled slowly. In the high valleys, where a message moved at the speed of a man walking over a ridge, it arrived eleven days after the plains had already lit their lamps. The hills lit theirs when they heard. The delay became permanent.
Madho Singh Bhandari. The Garhwali commander was away on campaign — the accounts place it at Dapaghat in Tibet — and had not returned by Diwali. His villages refused to celebrate without him. When he came back victorious eleven days later, they held their Diwali then, and kept holding it then afterwards. This is the version told with the most feeling, and it is the reason Egaas carries a note of homecoming that ordinary Diwali does not.
The second legend explains something real about the festival's present. Uttarakhand's hills have exported men for generations — to the Army, the ITBP, to the plains for work — and Egaas is the festival they come home for. A festival originally about waiting for someone to return has become the festival at which people return.
The Bhailo
The Bhailo is what makes Egaas look like nothing else.
A rope is made from the inner bark of trees, or a bundle of dried pine and grass is bound into a torch. One end is set alight. Then it is swung — held at the unlit end and spun in wide circles overhead, so the fire draws long arcs in the dark. Men and children take turns. Whole village grounds fill with revolving rings of fire, to dhol and damaun, with folk singing running underneath.
The Garhwali Bhailo songs are sung as it happens — the common refrain celebrates light arriving and darkness being driven off. The ritual is read as courage, as cleansing, and as fortune, though watching it, the reading that makes most immediate sense is simply that a hill village in November is very dark and this is a very good answer to that.
Around it: rows of diyas along rooftops and temple walls, and circle dances — Jhumailo, Chanchari, Jhora, Tandi, and in some places the Chholiya sword dance.
The Cattle and the Feast
As at Khatarua, the animals are dealt with before the people. Cows and bullocks are washed, massaged with mustard oil, marked with turmeric, and garlanded. Bulls' horns are oiled. They are given a bhog of flattened rice, milk and ghee. In villages where the okhali — the stone mortar set into the courtyard floor — is still in use, it is worshipped too. These are the tools and animals the year's work ran on.
Then the food, which is the part people describe first when asked. Arsa, the deep-fried rice-flour sweet soaked in jaggery syrup. Singal, made from wheat flour and curd. Jhangore ki kheer, barnyard-millet porridge. Puri, swala, urad dal pakode. Plates go between houses; courtyards fill; the eating goes on well past the fire.
Kumaon and Garhwal
Egaas is honestly a Garhwali festival first. That is where the Bhailo is most elaborate, where the Madho Singh Bhandari legend belongs, and where the observance is most complete.
In Kumaon it is real but different in emphasis. Almora and Champawat districts light long rows of diyas along rooftops and temple walls, with Jhora and Chanchari performed rather than the full Bhailo torch-swinging, and the festival reads as an extension of Bagwal more than as a separate event. Kumaoni families who keep it will often describe it as "our Diwali" rather than as a distinct festival with its own name.
It is worth saying this clearly, because a good deal of writing online flattens Uttarakhand into one culture. Egaas is a case where Garhwal leads and Kumaon follows in a lighter form — the reverse of Nanda Ashtami or Ghughutiya, which are Kumaoni first.
The Diwali Aipan
Both Diwali and Egaas are Aipan occasions in Kumaon, and Diwali is the year's most elaborate. The Lakshmi Pad — the goddess's footprints walking inward from the threshold — is drawn on fresh geru at the main door, with the ground laid the previous day so it dries properly.
By Egaas, eleven days later, the Diwali Aipan has usually worn away under foot traffic. Households that keep both will redraw it, faster and simpler the second time. For the materials and method see how to make Aipan; for why the pattern belongs to this particular day, the ritual significance of Aipan.
Egaas closes the autumn stretch of the Kumaoni year. Next comes deep winter, and then Ghughutiya and the Uttarayani mela in January. The whole year is laid out in the Kumaoni festival calendar 2026–27.
FAQ
When is Egaas Bagwal in 2026?
Egaas Bagwal 2026 falls on Friday, 20 November — Kartik Shukla Ekadashi, eleven days after Diwali on 8 November. Because it is a lunar date it moves each year, but it is always eleven days after Diwali.
What is the difference between Diwali and Egaas Bagwal?
Egaas Bagwal is Uttarakhand's own Diwali, held eleven days after the main one. Its rituals are distinct: the Bhailo fire-swinging, cattle washing and garlanding, circle dances such as Jhumailo and Jhora, and hill foods like arsa, singal and jhangore ki kheer. It is also called Budhi Diwali, the old Diwali.
Why is Egaas celebrated eleven days after Diwali?
Two explanations are given. One is that news of Rama's return to Ayodhya reached the remote Himalayan valleys eleven days late, so the hills lit their lamps eleven days late. The other is that villagers held back their celebration until the Garhwali commander Madho Singh Bhandari returned from campaign, which took eleven days.
What is Bhailo?
Bhailo is the signature ritual of Egaas: a rope made from tree bark, or a bound bundle of dried pine and grass, lit at one end and swung in wide circles in the dark, accompanied by folk songs and dhol-damaun. It is understood as symbolising light driving out darkness.
Is Egaas Bagwal celebrated in Kumaon or Garhwal?
Both, but Garhwal leads. The Bhailo, the Madho Singh Bhandari legend and the fullest observance belong to Garhwal. In Kumaon — particularly Almora and Champawat — it is marked with rows of diyas along rooftops and temples and with Jhora and Chanchari dances, generally as an extension of Diwali rather than a wholly separate festival.
What food is made on Egaas Bagwal?
Arsa (a fried rice-flour sweet in jaggery syrup), singal (wheat flour and curd), jhangore ki kheer (barnyard millet porridge), puri, swala and urad dal pakode. Plates are exchanged between households through the evening.
इगास बग्वाल 2026 कब है? (When is Egaas Bagwal 2026?)
इगास बग्वाल 2026 में शुक्रवार, 20 नवम्बर को है — कार्तिक शुक्ल एकादशी, यानी दीवाली (8 नवम्बर) के ग्यारह दिन बाद। इसे बूढ़ी दीवाली भी कहते हैं। शाम को भैलो जलाकर घुमाया जाता है, गाय-बैलों को नहलाकर सजाया जाता है, और अरसा, सिंगल, झंगोरे की खीर और स्वाला बनाए जाते हैं।