🇮🇳 India · Guide
Indian festival season 2026
From 26 August to 24 November, the densest stretch in the Indian calendar — every date in one place.
When is Diwali 2026?
Sunday, 8 November 2026
Every date this season
| Date | Day | Festival |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday | Onam | |
| Monday | Ganesh Chaturthi | |
| Sunday | Navratri begins | |
| Saturday | Durga Puja begins | |
| Tuesday | Dussehra | |
| Sunday | Diwali | |
| Monday | Govardhan Puja | |
| Wednesday | Bhai Dooj | |
| Sunday | Chhath Puja | |
| Tuesday | Guru Nanak Jayanti |
What each one marks
- 26 AugustOnam
Kerala’s harvest festival — flower carpets, the sadya feast and snake-boat races.
- 14 SeptemberGanesh Chaturthi
Ganesha arrives; ten days of pandals and processions, biggest in Maharashtra.
- 11 OctoberNavratri begins
Nine nights of the Goddess: garba in Gujarat, golu in the south.
- 17 OctoberDurga Puja begins
Bengal’s great festival — pandal-hopping, dhunuchi dancing, five days of it.
- 20 OctoberDussehra
Ravana burns; Navratri closes with the victory of good over evil.
- 8 NovemberDiwali
The festival of lights, on the darkest night of the lunar month.
- 9 NovemberGovardhan Puja
The morning after Diwali, honouring Krishna lifting the hill.
- 11 NovemberBhai Dooj
Brothers visit their sisters; the last day of the Diwali week.
- 15 NovemberChhath Puja
Offerings to the setting and rising sun, kept hardest in Bihar and eastern UP.
- 24 NovemberGuru Nanak Jayanti
The birth of the first Sikh Guru, on the Kartik full moon.
Plan around it
Several of these fall midweek, which is where a day or two of leave buys a long weekend. The leave planner works out which days to book, and the calendar feed keeps every date on your phone without you checking back.
Why these dates move every year
Almost every festival here is set by the Hindu lunisolar calendar, not the Gregorian one. The lunar month runs new moon to new moon while the solar year sets the seasons, so the two drift apart and are reconciled with a leap month every two to three years. That is why Diwali can fall in October one year and November the next, and why a fixed-date holiday list is no use for planning around them.
Dates shown follow published almanac reckoning. Observance can differ by a day between regions — a tithi that turns over near sunrise is kept on different days in different traditions — so confirm locally before anything that cannot move. See also why some holiday dates are marked provisional.