28 October 2026: LS Digital, India's leading Digital Business Transformation company, has released the latest chapters of The State of Festive India, Decoded, a cultural intelligence study by Langoor, an LS Digital Group company, and Quilt.AI. Focusing on Diwali and Dhanteras, the reports examine how consumers are continuing festive traditions while changing how they spend, shop and celebrate.
The findings highlight the growing importance of ritual authenticity, value-conscious spending and evolving purchase preferences, offering brands insights into the cultural nuances shaping festive consumption.
The study uses Quilt.AI’s Anthropologic research platform, combining discourse analysis of the preceding 12 months, including the 2025 festive season, with trends observed over the preceding six months, digital audience segmentation and cultural semiotics. The analysis draws on city-level discourse from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, alongside India-level trends and audience insights, to understand the motivations, behaviours and emerging priorities influencing festive participation.
The Diwali, Decoded report finds that 61% of the engaged audience falls into ritual-led segments, comprising Craft Makers (43%) and Home Ritualists (18%), while 39% is more spectacle-led. Search interest around ritual authenticity is nearly three times the available content supply, while handcrafted clay diyas have moved from niche to mainstream consideration over the six-month trend period. The findings also reveal significant gaps between consumer queries and available information. In Delhi, green-cracker verification accounts for 81.7% of analysed search interest, compared with 7.6% of written discourse. In Hyderabad, budget-stretching accounts for 95.6% of search interest, against just 5.2% of written discourse. The report further highlights that 75% of rangoli activity in the analysed trend data is DIY-led, reflecting the continuing role of hands-on participation in Diwali celebrations.
Gifting is another area where consumer expectations are evolving. The report identifies gifting options across price points ranging from ₹99 to ₹3,400, while revealing distinct preferences across cities. In Mumbai, dissatisfaction with conventional festive gifting, particularly the replacement of employee bonuses with sweet boxes, accounts for 26.6% of analysed written discourse and 22.1% of search interest.
In Bengaluru, the preference for cash over sweets accounts for 17.1% of analysed search interest. Hyderabad’s findings also point to concerns around the loss of traditional household rituals amid urban lifestyles, a theme accounting for 23.1% of written discourse in the city. Together, these insights highlight opportunities for brands to move beyond generic festive messaging and respond to the practical and cultural considerations influencing gifting, home rituals and purchase decisions.
The Dhanteras report examines how consumers are adapting their gold and silver purchases to changing price points while maintaining the ritual significance of the occasion. Citing CAIT estimates, the report notes that gold and silver purchases on Dhanteras in 2025 were valued at ₹60,000 crore, within an estimated ₹1 lakh crore in overall spending that day. Its city-level analysis reveals that gold-related searches account for 88.2% of analysed search interest in Delhi, 98.3% in Bengaluru and 99.6% in Hyderabad, while corresponding written coverage stands at 22.8%, 31.6% and 14.2%, respectively. The report also highlights a shift towards smaller gold purchases, including coins and lightweight pieces. In Hyderabad, old gold is estimated to fund 50–60% of jewellery sales, while Mumbai’s analysis shows consumers paying close attention to making charges and auspicious timings.
The findings across both chapters underline the need for brands to understand not only what consumers are buying, but also the cultural motivations and practical questions behind their decisions. From the authenticity of handcrafted products and the affordability of festive purchases to the significance of gifting and the choice of gold denomination, the reports identify opportunities for brands to make their communication more relevant, useful and responsive to consumer intent.
Speaking about the findings, Prasad Shejale, Founder & CEO, LS Digital, said, “Festivals are among the few occasions where heritage and modern consumer choices intersect so visibly. Diwali, for instance, is not just about what people buy, but how they create meaning through their choices, from handcrafted decorations and home rituals to the way they approach gifting. Our research highlights that these traditions are not disappearing; they are being reinterpreted to fit contemporary lifestyles and priorities. For brands, understanding this evolution is essential to staying culturally relevant, not by changing the meaning of the occasion, but by recognising how consumers want to experience it today.”
Adding to the insights, Venugopal Ganganna, CEO - Tech and Innovation, LS Digital, said, “Festive behaviour is often more nuanced than conventional market indicators suggest. During Diwali, people search for practical answers around budgets, rituals and product choices; on Dhanteras, the strong focus on gold coexists with a shift towards smaller purchase formats. These signals reveal not just demand, but the decisions and trade-offs consumers are making to participate in traditions. By connecting search patterns with cultural discourse and audience insights, we can uncover these nuances at a level that broad consumer trends may miss, giving brands a more precise understanding of the behaviours shaping festive markets.”
