The Works · the second

Diwali with the Sitare

An invitation you walk, and it lights as you go.

33moments from earlier years

10questions answered

1lamp kept dark

Why it exists

Why does a family's Diwali invitation need a page of its own?

Think of the card that used to arrive in the post. It said when and where, and nothing else. Everyone who already knew Diwali knew what to do. Everyone who didn't stayed home, because nobody wants to be the one who doesn't know when to take off their shoes.

The Sharma family hosts a Diwali for friends every year. This year it is on Saturday 21 November 2026. Many of those friends have never been to one. The family wanted a single page that could do three jobs a card cannot: teach the festival, take the reply, and ask for help without it feeling like asking.

So I built that page for them, with Claude.

What it does

Four things, for two kinds of guest

The guest who knows Diwali is let straight past. The guest who has never been is walked in.

Welcomes before it asksYou tap to light a lamp, and the evening opens. Nothing is asked of you until you have been welcomed.

Teaches the festivalOne kind question, "Is this your first Diwali?", opens a short way in: what to wear, what the puja is, what to say. Every strange word has a plain line beneath it.

Takes the reply and remembers the familyA yes or a no, found again later with a phone number. A family is counted once, however many times it replies.

Asks for help quietlyA few families help carry the food, the lamps and the fireworks, by name or anonymously. Nothing is charged on the page, and an amount is never shown.

The idea underneath

Nobody should stay home for fear of not knowing.

A first-timer is told when to take off their shoes, what to wear and what to say, which is two words. Everyone else is let past. Every field on the reply is asked kindly. Phone numbers, birth dates and gift amounts stay private from other guests. One lamp on the page is kept dark, and its secret is kept until the night.

Where it stands

Live, and being answered

Live. The invitation is open and guests are replying. The evening is Saturday 21 November 2026, from 5pm.
Designed, not yet built. The same invitation reused for the next gathering. Nothing else has been held in it yet.
Next. This year's evening, among the Moments (the part of aistrangegame.com that keeps single days), once its photographs exist.

What is public. The invitation is a web page anyone with the link can open, and it names the place: 1370 Adams Road, Bensalem PA 19020. These three pages describe it. They show none of its photographs and no guest's name.

Go further

Three ways in

The guide · two minutesWhat it is, and how to use itWhat happens when you open it, how to reply, and how to help carry the evening. The System Book · fifteen minutesHow every part worksEach path through the invitation, step by step, and every part in plain words. The invitation itselfWalk itThe real page, open to anyone with the link.