Little India Diwali Light-Up: Free Serangoon Road Walk

The Little India Deepavali street light-up stretches for more than two kilometres along Serangoon Road, and the lights are on every evening from 7:00pm to midnight for the length of the festival. Walking it costs nothing. The Little India Shop Owners and Heritage Association, which organises it, switched the lights on at Birch Road on 3 October, and Deepavali itself falls on Sunday 8 November 2026, with Monday 9 November a public holiday in lieu for those whose rest day is the Sunday.

There is no single street number for this event, because it follows Serangoon Road itself, the main spine of Little India. The organisers describe a light-up stretching over two kilometres along the road, with the switch-on ceremony held on Birch Road. The Indian Heritage Centre, which has a good map of the area, names Little India MRT station Exit E as the access point for Campbell Lane, one of the side streets that feed into the main road.

Start at Little India MRT and walk along Serangoon Road, so the lights unfold in front of you. The official organiser, LISHA, runs from an office at 48 Serangoon Road, Little India Arcade, #02-16, Singapore 217959. The festival's official site is deepavali.sg, which is where the programme for the weeks around Deepavali is published.

The lights come on at 7:00pm, so arrive at dusk if you want to see the daylight fade and the arches take over. The organisers give no end date for the nightly switch-on beyond the words throughout the festival, so do not assume the lights run past Deepavali weekend. The official page lists the nightly window as 7:00pm to midnight.

If you prefer room to move, go on a weeknight; if you want the most festive atmosphere, the weekend of 7 and 8 November is when shoppers are out for Deepavali. Monday 9 November is the public holiday in lieu, which makes the Sunday evening the natural climax of the season. Wear shoes you can walk in for an hour, since the road is long and pavements are shared with shop displays.

The lights are organised by LISHA, the association of Little India shop owners. The street below them is working Little India: garland sellers, sari shops, spice stores, goldsmiths and sweet shops, all trading through the festival weeks. That mix is why the walk works as more than a photo stop; the lights sit above a street that is busy with shopping for the festival.

The organisers' own 2026 programme runs alongside the lights, with a Festival Village at Campbell Lane from 10 October to 8 November, free live music on some Saturdays, and paid workshops. Those events are covered on the official site, and they are the best reason to come in the final fortnight rather than the first. The light-up itself needs no ticket, booking or registration, and you can enter and leave at any point along the road.

The Indian Heritage Centre at 5 Campbell Lane, Singapore 209924, is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm and closed on Mondays, so it is a daytime stop rather than an evening one, though its Deepavali Open House is extended to 8pm on Saturdays. Little India Arcade at 48 Serangoon Road publishes opening hours of daily 9:00am to 10:00pm, and is the easiest place to buy garlands, brass lamps and small gifts after dark.

Tekka Centre at Blk 665 Buffalo Road, Singapore 210665, is the hawker centre on Buffalo Road beside the route. It was built in 1980, it is the second largest hawker centre in Singapore with more than 400 stalls according to the National Environment Agency, and it stays open over Deepavali weekend. Stall hours vary and no central timetable is published, so eat before the walk or after, and keep the walk itself for the lights.

Serangoon Road is also a temple road. Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple at 397 Serangoon Road, Singapore 218123, stands on the light-up route and opens from 6am to 12pm and 6pm to 9pm, so an evening visit fits neatly before the 7pm switch-on. Shoes come off at the entrance, shoulders and knees should be covered, and the temple is free to enter.

Treat the temples as places of worship first. On Deepavali morning itself, they are packed with families in new clothes, so visitors who only want to look should choose a weeknight in the week before. If you only want to see the lights, you can do that comfortably in 45 minutes of walking, which leaves time for a temple stop and a meal in the same evening.

If it rains, Little India Arcade is a roofed place to wait it out, since it publishes opening hours of 9:00am to 10:00pm. The Indian Heritage Centre, with its admission of $10 for adults and $8 for seniors and students, is the best indoor alternative before 6pm, and it is shut on Mondays. The light-up is outdoors, with no cloakroom, so carry only what you need.

For a quieter version of the same trip, visit on a weeknight between 8pm and 9pm, when many families have gone home for dinner. The best single combination for a first-timer is a walk from Little India MRT along Serangoon Road, a pause in Little India Arcade, supper at Tekka Centre, and a last look at the lights before the nightly switch-off at midnight.

It suits first-time visitors who want Deepavali atmosphere without a ticket, photographers who want to catch the arches at dusk, and families who can manage an hour on foot. It suits anyone who wants the festival at street level, with shopfronts, jasmine and spices, instead of a staged show. It does not suit anyone who needs a seated programme or a published schedule of performances, because the light-up is simply the lights.

A fair verdict: go on a weeknight in the final week, arrive at 7:00pm, walk along Serangoon Road, and keep the weekend for temples and shopping. Save the Indian Heritage Centre and the Campbell Lane events for a separate daytime visit, and keep Deepavali morning for the temples if you want to see worshippers at their busiest.