Last updated: October 2026 · Method: desk research across published sources and visitor reports; nothing first-hand, confirm locally.
📄 Image slot — floating diyas set on pushkar lake at sunset with evening lamp ceremony.
The main ghats of Pushkar lake host a nightly ritual: pilgrims set small flower-and-lamp floats on the lake in the deep-daan offering, and visitors are welcome to do the same. This guide covers the experience side: what it looks like, what it costs, and how to take part without getting in anyone’s way. The timing and ghat logistics sit in the separate aarti timing guide.
The ceremony
- What you will see: as the light drops, the ghat steps fill with families, and one by one the flower-and-lamp offerings go onto the water, each a raft of marigolds with a burning wick at its centre. The witness guide describes the same scene at Udaipur’s ghats; Pushkar’s version is smaller and more participatory, because the lamp you see drifting is usually one a fellow visitor just launched.
- When to go: the floating starts around sunset and carries on for an hour or so, nightly. The Kolayat parallel shows what the same ritual looks like at festival intensity, hundreds of lamps at once during the fair.
- Participating: buy a lamp from the ghat vendors, who sell the flower-and-lamp set for pocket change. Hold it until the wick catches properly, set it on the water gently, and make whatever wish or intention you came with.
- The etiquette is short: step back once your lamp is afloat, keep cameras low and flashes off, and let the priests’ ceremony at the water’s edge keep its space. The moment costs little and is the evening most travellers remember.