There are only two weeks left to Deepavali on Oct 29.
Most Indians across Singapore celebrate the Festival of Lights, marking the triumph of good over evil by lighting oil lamps on that day.
They offer prayers, exchange gifts and share sweets.
A month before Deepavali, Indians start cleaning and decorating their homes to welcome Goddess Lakshmi.
The belief is that Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth and Vishnu’s wife, visits her devotees and bestows gifts and blessings upon each of them on the day of Deepavali.
As part of the festivities, families also put on new clothes and visit relatives and friends.
To prepare for the day, families start their shopping well in advance.
From decorative items and new furniture to new clothing and jewellery to sweets, there is a lot to buy for family and friends.
It is usually a shopping frenzy as people visit stores and shopping malls to make use of Deepavali promotional sales and offers.
tabla! finds out more about some of these promotions.
SWEET DELIGHTS
Shahi Maharani North Indian Restaurant at Raffles City Shopping Centre has launched a wide range of sweet boxes such as the basic Shahi Gift Box, with an assortment of 16 pieces of mithai.
It has also come up with a new Treasure Chest box featuring two variations – 30 pieces of premium variety of sweets and a sweet and savoury version with 15 pieces of mithai and three packs of the restaurant’s homemade savoury snacks.
The boxes, with prices ranging from $40+ to $75+, carry mouth-watering classics made by the restaurant’s halwai (Indian sweets) chef such as ebony and ivory (chocolate burfi), mango surprise, stuffed kaju roll (cashew roll stuffed with pistachios), milk cake, besan burfi (gram flour mithai), walnut ladoos and hazelnut and dark chocolate ladoo.
Its new sweet addition this year is the coconut almond ladoo.
The restaurant’s savoury selection includes spiced cashews, namak pare (savoury bites made of flour and carom seeds) and a special savoury snack mixture – Shahi Namekeen Mix – made from peanuts, sev, channa dal, moong dal and a special spice mix.
It is also selling mathris (deep fried discs of spiced pastry) packed in glass jars for $20+ per jar.
Apart from sweets and savouries, Shahi Maharani North Indian Restaurant is also preparing a celebration banquet featuring a variety of flavours from all over India.
The Deepavali eve lunch on Oct 28 costs $30++ per person while the Deepavali buffet dinner on Oct 29 costs $68++ per person.
The spread will include a variety of curries from Kashmir, Goa, Hyderabad, Rajasthan, Punjab, Kolkata and Tamil Nadu. Dishes include Chetinnad chicken, Goan prawn curry, macher jhol (Bengali fish curry), lal maas (Rajasthani lamb) and Amritsari wadi aloo (Punjabi gram fritters with potatoes).
The buffet on Oct 29 will also feature live stations showcasing Mumbai and Delhi chaats (Indian street food) such as pani puri and papdi chaat, “tawa” (iron griddle) stations presenting an array of vegetarian and non-vegetarian kebabs which are popular in Delhi and Lucknow like the galouti kebab (lamb cutlets) and tangri kebab (chicken).
To add to the festivities, there will be musicians performing live, singing ghazals and Bollywood tunes on the evening of Deepavali day.
Another restaurant, Kailash Parbat, which has outlets on Belilios Road and Syed Alwi Road, has also come up with a special sweets menu for the festive season.
Patrons can either have the sweets at the restaurant or buy them as takeaway.
They include kesar mawa barfi, mawa peda, carrot halwa, besan ladoo, motichur ladoo, sonpapdi, chocolate kaju katli, kaju roll, pista roll and more.
Bombay Cafe on Tanjong Katong Road has come up with designer gift boxes that hold unique and exotic sweets prepared by their master chefs.
Its deluxe collection is priced at $30 for 16 pieces and its premium collection, which has 25 pieces is priced at $55. They also have a dried fruit box priced at $30+.
DECORATE YOUR HOME AND DO AWAY WITH OLD FURNITURE
If you’re planning to do away with buffets in restaurants and are hosting relatives and friends in your home for a feast and get-together, you can decorate your home with get all your home decorative items from Jothi Store and Flower Shop – a one-stop store that sells such home decor items for the festive season.
From religious figurines, festive cards and silverware home decor to ready-made rangolis, designer diyas and switch-operated clay lamps, you can get everything you need for the festival at this store on Campbell Lane.
Families replacing their old furniture can visit Ikea and The Furniture Mall for great deals.
If you’re an Ikea Family member, get a side table and a shelving unit, among other items at discounted prices.
These offers last till the Deepavali weekend.
It is free to sign up for Ikea Family membership at IKEA.sg/FAMILY and you can view more offers at IKEA.sg/family/offers.
While you’re shopping, give Ikea’s Deepavali special dish – chicken briyani with sambal egg and acar – a try.
The dish which costs $7 will be on the menu on Oct 29 and 30.
Also, go furniture shopping at The Furniture Mall (TFM) on Toh Guan Road, which is host to over has more than 40 luxury furniture stores with some 70 established brands.
The furniture giant, which is celebrating its 22nd anniversary till Jan 31 next year, is giving away lucky draw cash prizes worth S $68,888.
Customers can qualify for the lucky draw when they make purchases worth $200.
Patrons can stroll through walkways where decor ideas are displayed and they can explore a pop-up store of Gabbeh Carpet showcasing a range of exquisite lamps, carpets and paintings to prop up for any living space in any type of home.
Signature style items ranging from bedding to living and dining are also available and some can be custom-made to preferred hues, sizes and textures of choice.
The mall TFM’s bedding brands of mattresses and bedframes are of international repute.
They include Dunlopillo, Englander, Getha, King Koil, MaxCoil and Sealy.
Also, choose from an extensive range of furniture categories – classic styles, contemporary, vintage, eclectic, ethnic or minimalist zen.
The range includes brands such as 2010 Lifestyle, Living Solution, Cellini, Country Furniture, Deco Home, Eco Collection, Lorenzo and more.
The furnishing and interior design showrooms also offer many choices for home embellishments.
They include brands such as La Cafa, Art Living, Best Tech Aircon Gallery, Curtain Villa, Gabbeh Carpet, Tame Promotions, Vincere by Lumiera (ID Specialist).
GET YOUR FAVOURITE INDIAN STAPLES
If you have a packed shopping schedule and have no time to buy groceries from Little India, fret not. Head for your nearest FairPrice store where you can get Indian staples at discounted prices.
These include a variety of products such as QBB Pure Ghee ($7.50), FairPrice Muruku (fine or thick, $1.25 per pack), FairPirce Pakistan Basmati Rice Briyani ($7.90), FairPrice Ponni Rice ($6.95) and FairPrice Chappati 30s ($4.95).
With all that you need to buy, you can easily spend $30 and above at any FairPrice store from Oct 6 to Nov 2 and stand to win $10,000 as the supermarket giant gives away $500 FairPrice gift vouchers to 20 winners.
Customers can also double their lucky draw chances when they charge $30 or more to their OCBC Plus! Visa cards.
Also, get free festive packets with every $30 spent in one receipt. The packets are limited to two per customer, while stocks last.
If you’re busy with other festive preparations and have no time to go down to the nearest grocery store, have them delivered to your home with RedMart.
Get Indian staples such as MDH Dal Makhani, MTR Gulab Jamun, Everest Chhole Masala and more from www.redmart.com.
The RedMart app is also available for download on the App Store and Google Play.
If you’re new to RedMart, enjoy $10 off with free home delivery.
The offer till Oct 31 is applicable on your first purchase with a minimum spend of $30.
If you’re sporty and not looking to get typical Deepavali gifts for yourself or your friends, head for Queensway Shopping Centre.
With as many as 150 shops providing goods from sports shoes and apparel to spectacles and T-shirt printing services, you will be spoilt for choice.
GET YOUR FESTIVE BLING
This year, Joyalukkas – whose showroom is located opposite the Perumal Temple in Little India – has launched a Dazzling Diwali campaign that they believe their customers are sure to love.
In addition, they are offering their customers special Deepavali promotions such as a free silver Laxmi idol on purchase of gold and precious stone jewellery from Oct 28 to 30.
Customers will also receive a free 2g 22K gold coin on purchase of diamond, polki and pearl jewellery worth $2,000 during the period.
All this is aside from other offers, and guaranteed gold rate protection with just a 10 per cent down payment.
Said chairman and managing director of Joyalukkas Group Joy Alukkas: “Deepavali is a celebration of positivity and goodness.
It is a time to share happiness, and of course gifts, with families and friends.
“And because our customers are at the heart of everything we do at Joyalukkas, every year we try to offer them something extra special for this most special occasion.
We wish our most loyal and supportive patrons a very happy Deepavali. We hope that these amazing gifts and offers make your festivities even brighter.”
GRT Jewellers, on Serangoon Road, is offering their customers 25g of silver free with every carat of diamond bought.
They have also come up with a silver for gold scheme, where if a customer buys gold, they get the equal weight in silver for free.
To commemorate the Festival of Lights, Art Karat is having a jewellery show – Navratna The Gemstone Collection – till Oct 16 at the Hilton Singapore from 11am to 8pm.
Most Art Karat jewellery is silver plated with 22k gold studded or strung with precious authentic gemstones, cultured and semi-precious natural stones.
Malabar Gold & Diamonds, which has several showrooms in Singapore, has unveiled its latest collection of jewellery specially designed for Deepavali in gold, diamonds and precious gems to suit the tastes of their multicultural and multinational customers.
It has incorporated these designs as part of various brands presented at Malabar Gold & Diamonds, namely Ethnix – Handcrafted Designer Jewellery, Era – Uncut Diamond Jewellery, Mine – Diamonds Unlimited, Divine – Indian Heritage Jewellery and Precia – Precious Gem Jewellery.
Customers get a chance to win up to 500 gold coins by trying their luck with scratch and win coupons when they buy gold jewellery worth $1,000.
In addition, they also get a 2g gold coin on diamond jewellery purchases of $3,000 and a 1g gold coin on purchase of diamond jewellery worth $1,000.
Other offers include no waiver of making charges for 8g gold coins and gold rate protection on payment of 10 per cent of the total amount on the selected gold jewellery.
With such good offers, what are you waiting for? Head for these stores to get your festive bling.
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