Deepavali Light-Up, Serangoon Road, Little India

Serangoon Road is for looking up.

Free, two months long and best on a weeknight. More than 2km of Serangoon Road is lit overhead every evening until 29 November, switched on at a ceremony on Birch Road on 3 October by the Little India Shop Owners and Heritage Association (LISHA). The compromise is the calendar: the closer you get to the festival, the busier it gets, so if you want to look up without being walked into, go on a weeknight.

Mind the dates. Deepavali falls on Sunday 8 November this year, with Monday 9 November the public holiday, and that weekend will be the liveliest and the most crowded. The lights stay up for three weeks after it, which makes late November the quiet option if the arches are all you want. The bazaar side of the season, the Deepavali Festival Village on Campbell Lane, runs from 7pm nightly until 8 November and has its own page.

Build the evening in this order. Start at the Indian Heritage Centre, at No. 5 Campbell Lane, where admission is free for Singaporeans and PRs; its galleries shut in the early evening, so make it the late afternoon. Eat at Tekka Centre, next to Little India MRT, whose ground-floor hawker centre covers Indian vegetarian, North Indian and Malay cooking. Then walk out as the street switches on.

This is a working neighbourhood first, of worship, errands and trade, and it is busier than usual in festival season. Be considerate with the camera, and give the people doing their festival shopping right of way.

Good to know Lights on Serangoon Road from 3 October until 29 November; our lighting times come from a secondary source, so check deepavali.sg. The Campbell Lane Festival Village (10 October–8 November) has its own page. Little India MRT is a short walk away.

Deepavali Light-Up, Serangoon Road, Little India | Serangoon Road, Little India, Singapore | Nearest MRT: Little India