Hindu Festivals 2026
The festivals and auspicious days coming up, in date order, with how long until each one. Every date here links to a page with its tithi, the rule that fixes the day, and the timings worked out for your city. We add a festival once its dates are checked, so the list grows through the year.
Next: In 2 days
Pushya nakshatra
Monday, 5 October 2026. The Moon in Pushya, the recurring window for buying gold and starting things, about every 27 days.
Festivals in October 2026
- Pushya nakshatraIn 2 daysMonday, 5 October 2026
The Moon in Pushya, the recurring window for buying gold and starting things, about every 27 days.
- Sharad NavratriIn 8 daysSunday, 11 October 2026 to 19 October
Nine nights for the nine forms of Durga: each day's goddess and colour, Ghatasthapana muhurat by city, Ashtami and Sandhi Puja.
- Durga Puja (Bengal)In 14 daysSaturday, 17 October 2026 to 21 October
Shashthi to Bijoya Dashami by the Bengali almanac, with Sandhi Puja on Ashtami and sindoor khela on the last day.
- Dussehra (Vijayadashami)In 17 daysTuesday, 20 October 2026
The tenth day of victory that closes Navratri: Vijay Muhurat by city, Ravan Dahan, Shami puja.
- Kullu DussehraIn 17 daysTuesday, 20 October 2026 to 26 October
A week at Dhalpur in which around two hundred village devtas of the valley gather to honour Raghunath.
Festivals in November 2026
Festivals in May 2027
How festival dates are fixed
A Hindu festival is tied to a tithi, one of the thirty lunar days of the month, and a tithi runs on the Moon's clock, not the wall clock. It can begin at three in the afternoon and end at four the next day. So every festival carries a rule for which calendar day gets it. Dhanteras needs its tithi running in the evening, when the puja is done. Dussehra needs it in the afternoon. Most others look at sunrise.
That rule, applied to one city's sunrise or sunset, is why two calendars occasionally print different days, and why a timing published for Delhi is wrong in Chennai. Each page linked above shows the tithi window behind its date and the timings for several cities, so you can see the reasoning rather than take a single figure on trust.
Common questions
What is the next festival?
Pushya nakshatra, on Monday, 5 October 2026. This page lists everything coming up that we publish dates and timings for, in date order.
Why do Hindu festival dates change every year?
Most of them are fixed to a tithi, a lunar day, rather than to a calendar date. Twelve lunar months come to about 354 days, eleven short of the solar year, so a festival moves about eleven days earlier each year. Every two or three years a leap month, adhik maas, is added to pull the two back together, and the festival jumps about nineteen days later.
Why do two calendars sometimes give different dates for the same festival?
A tithi does not start at midnight. It can begin at any hour and often straddles two calendar days, so each festival has a rule for which day it belongs to: the tithi must be running at sunrise for some, in the evening Pradosh Kaal for Dhanteras, and in the afternoon for Dussehra. Calendars that apply different rules, or calculate for a different city, can land a day apart. Each festival page here explains the rule it uses.
Are the timings the same across India?
The tithi starts at the same instant everywhere, but muhurat windows are cut from local sunrise and sunset, so they differ by city. Kolkata sees the sun about an hour before Ahmedabad. That is why the festival pages give timings for several cities instead of one national figure.
For the tithi, nakshatra, Rahu Kaal and Choghadiya on any ordinary day, use the daily panchang, and for auspicious hours on a date of your choosing, the muhurat page.