Diwali 2020: Google launches digital colouring-in book for festival of lights

The concept turns images into basic outlines so you can add colour back into the mix

Google has shared 10 artworks you can colour in online for Diwali. Courtesy Google

Diwali celebrations may be a little muted around the world this year because of the pandemic, but one celebration lets you mark the occasion in technicolour.

Google has launched a digital colouring-in book to celebrate the festival of lights, which allows users to virtually enhance 10 images that symbolise the occasion.

The Diwali edition is the latest release in the search engine's Art Colouring Book series, an initiative under its Experiments banner that lets users get creative with famous artworks, landmarks and photographs.

The concept turns images into basic outlines and offers a colour palette to help you add vibrancy back into the mix.

You simply click on the colour you want to use, then click on the portion of the image you want to colour in, and that segment is flooded with the hue.

You can then either share your finished artwork on social media or download it to use as a screensaver or print and frame it.

Diwali, the Indian festival that symbolises the victory of good against evil, this year falls on Saturday, November 14.

The Hindu celebration marks the return of Rama (a demigod and protagonist of the epic Ramayana) to his kingdom of Ayodhya, after he defeated the demon king Ravana. The city was lit up with diyas (lamps) to welcome its ruler, a tradition that continues to this day with households lit up to celebrate the five-day festival.

As part of Google's Art Colouring Book series, users can embellish an image of a Dokra lamp, as well as the painting Lady Lighting a Lamp by Abdur Rahman Chughtai. The 1750 artwork , which is displayed in the National Museum, New Delhi, also forms part of the series, along with Women Doing Fireworks, which is exhibited in Hyderabad's Salar Jung Museum.

What else do people do for Diwali?

In the lead-up to Diwali, homes are thoroughly cleaned (akin to spring cleaning) and decorated with lamps, fairy lights and rangoli drawings etched out in colourful powders on the threshold, in a bid to entice Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity.

Fireworks and sweetmeats are other markers of the celebration.