Labh Panchami is the grand finale of Diwali. It is the last day of the five day long Diwali celebrations and is also known as Saubhagya Panchami and Labh Pancham in Gujarat as well as ‘Laakheni Panchmi’ in some other states.
It is a day immensely auspicious and lucky as the name suggests. Saubhagya means luck. This is the panchami day of shukla paksha of the month of Kartick.
In 2019, ‘Laakheni Panchmi’ or Labh Panchami will be celebrated on the 1st of November.
- Rituals of Labh panchami
Labh Panchami as mentioned earlier is an extremely auspicious day. The Panchami tithi is in itself propitious to initiate new things. Thus it is auspicious to start business or any kind of new ventures. In Gujarat most of the business owners start restart their work and accounting on this auspicious day. Thus for the Gujaratis, Labh Panchami is the first day of the New Year. The business community start their new books or ledgers called Khatu on this day, and write Shubh Labh on each of the first pages.
Those devotees who had missed on performing Sharda Pujan during the course of Diwali can do that during this day. Shops can be reopened on this day and businesses to commence as usual after a period of holiday. Prayers are offered by the devotees to Goddess Lakshmi and Ganesh Ji.
According to the jains too the Labh Panchami is an important day as they worships their books and prays for more knowledge.
People on this day visit friends and relatives with sweets and other savories. Sweets are specifically offered to sweeten the relationships with near and dear ones. The scriptures however teach us to move towards the biggest labh or profit – self realization.