SBS celebrates the colour, culture and joy of the Festivals of Lights with all Australians

SBS celebrates the colour, culture and joy of the Festivals of Lights with all Australians

27 October, 2026

Media releases

More than one million Australians celebrate Diwali, Deepavali, Bandi Chhor Diwas and Tihar, with SBS bringing the colour, stories and traditions of the Festivals of Lights to audiences across Australia. From compelling dramas and documentaries to recipes and podcasts, SBS's vibrant line-up of premium multilingual content invites all Australians to discover the rich cultures, traditions and rituals behind these celebrations.

With community festivities already underway across the regional towns and metropolitan cities ahead of key traditions and rituals beginning on Friday 6 November, SBS is helping Australians connect, learn and celebrate together. SBS's guide to the Festivals of Lights highlights events taking place across the country, with SBS partnering with local councils and organisations to support celebrations across NSW, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC and WA.

SBS Managing Director Jane Palfreyman said: The Festivals of Lights are a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the cultures and traditions that make Australia so diverse, bringing families and communities together. Through SBS, audiences can discover the stories behind Diwali, Deepavali, Bandi Chhor Diwas and Tihar, from personal stories and recipes to teaching resources. By sharing the voices and experiences of the many communities who celebrate these festivals, we can help all Australians gain a deeper understanding of different cultures and find more ways to connect. We're proud to bring these stories to audiences across the country.

SBS Audio's Bangla, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Nepali, Our Pacific, Punjabi, Russian, Sinhala, Spice, Tamil and Telugu programs share stories, content and explainers, including What is Diwali? Understanding the Festivals of Lights', available in 28 languages.

Highlights include:

SBS Nepali: Meet the first Hindu chaplain in the Australian Defence Force and discover how multifaith defence personnel celebrate Diwali, Deepavali, Bandi Chhor Diwas and Tihar.

SBS Punjabi: Discover a small coastal town in northern NSW that was home to Australia's first Sikh temple, inaugurated in 1968, and where Diwali and Bandi Chhor Diwas are celebrated each year.

SBS Spice: The English-language digital platform for Gen Y and Gen Z South Asian Australians shares stories from Nepalese communities navigating the Festivals of Lights as many families continue to grieve following the recent flash floods.

SBS Tamil: Explore diverse and often overlooked perspectives on Ravana and Deepavali, and how cultural traditions, identity and history shape different understandings of good, evil and belonging.

Our Pacific: Discover how Fijian Indian communities celebrate Diwali with Tavi Sharma for a very Indo-Fijian discussion about food, family and culture.

SBS Russian and SBS Chinese: Explore stories of multicultural couples celebrating Diwali.

SBS On Demand is marking the Festivals of Lights with its Celebrating Diwali | Deepavali collection, featuring seven curated shelves showcasing diverse cultures through television and film.

Highlights include Season 1 of Deli Boys (Sunday 8 November, from 8.30 pm on SBS2), a dark crime comedy about two pampered Pakistani American brothers who inherit a convenience store linked to the criminal underworld; Hindi Vindi (Sunday 8 November, 8.30 pm on SBS World Movies), which fuses Australian hip-hop with traditional Hindi songs; Season 1 of food documentary Not Your Butter Chicken (Tuesday 3 November to Friday 6 November, 5 pm on SBS Food); and a special Diwali episode of Donal's Festival Kitchen (Sunday 8 November, 7pm on SBS Food).

SBS's education arm, SBS Learn, is sharing free classroom resources for teachers across Australia. For the first time, selected resources are available in 11 languages to support students whose first language is not English: Arabic, Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Mandarin, Nepali, Punjabi, Sinhala, Tamil and Telugu. Access the free teaching resources here.

SBS News will travel to remote towns in the Northern Territory, exploring the migrant stories within local communities, from the Indian-Sri Lankan family restaurant Southern Spice Authentic Asian Cuisine to Nish, whose hair salon Why Not by Nish, reflects a career that has included cutting the hair of famous cricket players and working in the Bollywood industry, and now working with Indigenous communities. SBS Learn also features an interview with MasterChef contestant Depinder Chhibber, exploring the food, family and traditions of Diwali.

For more information, visit sbs.com.au/Diwali

For a PDF of this media release, click here.

LINK:	https://www.sbs.com.au/aboutus/2026/10/27/sbs-celebrates-the-colour-cu...
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