This custom is regarded as an omen of the luck that one is going to have in the coming year. It is all in fun, though, in a spirit of light-hearted revelry, and merry making. Winter crops are sown and, in Punjab, the day following Diwali is known as tikka when sisters make a paste with saffron and rice and place an auspicious mark on their brother s foreheads as a symbolic gesture to ward off all harm. People of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and for Marwaris anywhere, the day after Diwali is the first day of the new financial year when they start new account books with the blessings of the goddess. Diwali coincides with the New Year in Gujarat and amongst Jains and several merchant communities.
Old accounts are closed and new account books worshiped.
Coins and gold ornaments are also worshipped and in some instances cleaned with milk. In Maharashtra, it is the thirteenth day of Ashwin, the trayodasi, that is observed as a festival commemorating a young prince whom Yama, the God of Death, had claimed four days after his marriage. Filled, however, with compassion for the luckless youth, the legend goes, Yama promised that those who observed the day would be spared untimely death-and so the lamps that are lit to mark the festival are placed facing south, unlike on other festive days, because south is the direction mythologically assigned to Yama. On the second day of the month of Kartik, the Maharashtrians celebration thus exchanges gifts. The celebrations thus actually stretch over nearly five days.