Festivals
A year of festivals
Thirty festivals across faiths and regions, arranged by the six seasons of the Indian year: what each marks, where it is kept, what is eaten, and what to look for.
India keeps several calendars at once
Harvest festivals follow the sun and fall on nearly the same date each year. Most others follow the moon, so their dates move by about ten to twenty days against the Gregorian calendar, and a month name such as Kartika can mean different English months in different years. Each faith and region also has its own new year. The traditional Indian year is divided into six seasons, the ritus, of about two months each, and this page is arranged by them.
- Vasanta, spring
mid-Mar to mid-May - Grishma, summer
mid-May to mid-Jul - Varsha, monsoon
mid-Jul to mid-Sep - Sharad, autumn
mid-Sep to mid-Nov - Hemanta, early winter
mid-Nov to mid-Jan - Shishira, late winter
mid-Jan to mid-Mar
Thirty festivals
30 festivals
Ugadi and Gudi Padwa
Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra · New moon of Chaitra, March or April
The new year of the Deccan. Mango leaves hang at the door. In Maharashtra a gudi, a cloth-draped pole crowned with a pot, neem leaves and sugar garlands, is raised. In the Telugu and Kannada regions the day’s dish is a pachadi of six tastes (jaggery, tamarind, salt, chilli, neem flowers and raw mango), for the sweet and the bitter of the year to come.
Mahavir Jayanti
Jain communities, notably Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra · Chaitra, March or April
The birth of Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Tirthankara. Processions carry his image, temples are decorated, and many families mark the day with prayer, charity and a simple vegetarian meal or a fast.
Five new years in April
Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bengal and Assam · Around 13 to 15 April
The solar year turns and five regions greet it in five ways. Vaisakhi in Punjab, which also recalls the founding of the Khalsa in 1699. Puthandu in Tamil Nadu. Vishu in Kerala, where the first sight of the day is an arrangement of auspicious things, the vishukkani. Poila Baisakh in Bengal, when shopkeepers open new account books. Rongali Bihu in Assam, with dance and the beat of the dhol.
Buddha Purnima
Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Buddhist communities · Full moon of Vaisakha, April or May
In the Theravada tradition the day of the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death. Monks chant beneath the Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, lamps and flowers are offered, and the day is a public holiday in India.
Rath Yatra
Puri, Odisha · Ashadha, June or July
Three great wooden chariots carry Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra from the Jagannath Temple to the Gundicha Temple, pulled by thousands of hands along the Grand Road. Rasagola, in Odisha’s account, belongs to the days that follow.
Hemis Tsechu
Hemis Monastery, Ladakh · Summer, on the Tibetan Buddhist calendar
Monks in silk robes and painted masks perform cham, sacred dances, in the monastery courtyard, said to honour Padmasambhava, who brought Buddhism to Tibet. The festival draws villagers from across the valley.
Raksha Bandhan
North and West India · Full moon of Shravana, August
A sister ties a rakhi, a thread, on her brother’s wrist and he promises to protect her and gives a gift. The thread is also tied between friends and neighbours.
Onam
Kerala · Ten days in Chingam, August or September
Kerala’s harvest festival. Flower carpets, pookalam, grow larger each day. Families share the onasadya, a feast of many dishes on a banana leaf. Snake boats race on the backwaters. The festival recalls King Mahabali, who is said to return each year to see his people.
Janmashtami
Mathura, Vrindavan and across India · Bhadrapada, August or September
The birth of Krishna. Temples keep a midnight vigil. In Maharashtra, human pyramids climb to break a hanging pot of curd, the dahi handi, in memory of the young Krishna’s love of butter.
Ganesh Chaturthi
Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Telangana · Bhadrapada, August or September
Clay images of Ganesha are installed at home and in neighbourhood pandals, worshipped for a day or up to ten, and then immersed in water. The public festival was popularised in Pune in the 1890s, notably by Bal Gangadhar Tilak from 1893. The sweet of the day is the modak.
Navroz, the Parsi new year
Mumbai, Gujarat and Parsi communities · Around mid-August
The Parsi calendar does not adjust for leap years, so in India the new year falls in August rather than at the spring equinox. The day begins with prayer at the fire temple, and the table carries sev, sweet vermicelli, and a fish dish, patra ni machhi. Nowruz is on UNESCO’s list as a tradition shared by several countries.
Navratri and Garba
Gujarat, and across India · Nine nights of Ashvina, September or October
In Gujarat, communities dance garba and dandiya around a lamp or an image of the goddess; UNESCO inscribed the Garba of Gujarat in 2023. In Tamil Nadu, homes arrange golu, tiered displays of dolls. In the north the nights lead into the Ramlila.
Durga Puja
Kolkata and West Bengal; also Assam, Odisha, Tripura · Five days of Ashvina, October
Neighbourhood pandals, some of them small works of architecture, hold clay images of the goddess Durga. The dhak drums sound, and on the last day the images are carried to the water. UNESCO inscribed Durga Puja in Kolkata in 2021.
Dussehra (Vijayadashami)
Across India · The tenth day after Navratri begins, October
Effigies of Ravana burn in much of the north. Mysuru’s Dasara is a ten-day royal festival with a procession and an illuminated palace. Kullu’s Dussehra begins on Vijayadashami and lasts seven days, when the valley’s deities are carried to the fair. In Bastar it runs about 75 days, centred on the goddess Danteshwari, and Ravana is not burned.
Diwali (Deepavali)
Across India · New moon of Kartika, October or November
Rows of clay lamps, rangoli at the door, new clothes, sweets and worship of Lakshmi. For Jains it marks the nirvana of Mahavira; for Sikhs, Bandi Chhor Divas. UNESCO inscribed Deepavali on its list on 10 December 2025.
Chhath
Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh · Kartika, about six days after Diwali
Devotees stand in a river or pond at sunset and again at sunrise to give thanks to the sun, with baskets of fruit and thekua, a sweet of wheat flour and jaggery.
Pushkar Fair
Pushkar, Rajasthan · Full moon of Kartika, November
A camel and livestock fair beside the holy lake at Pushkar, joined to a pilgrimage and a bathing festival. Herders, traders and pilgrims share the same sand.
Guru Nanak Jayanti
Sikh communities, especially Punjab · Full moon of Kartika, November
The birth of Guru Nanak in 1469. There is an unbroken reading of the Guru Granth Sahib, an Akhand Path, nagar kirtan processions through the streets, and langar, the free community meal served in every gurdwara.
Hornbill Festival
Kisama, Nagaland · 1 to 10 December, every year since 2000
Nagaland’s tribes gather at Kisama near Kohima with morung huts, songs, war dances, food and crafts. It is named for the hornbill, a bird honoured in many Naga traditions.
Christmas
Goa, Kerala and the Northeast · 25 December
Midnight Mass, star lanterns and plum cake, and in Goa the layered coconut sweet bebinca. Christians are the majority in Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya, where the season is a month-long celebration.
Makar Sankranti and its cousins
Across India · Around 14 January
The sun turns north, and harvest festivals follow under different names: Lohri in Punjab with bonfires and sweets of sesame and peanuts; Uttarayan in Gujarat, when the sky fills with kites; Magh Bihu in Assam with feasts and bonfires; and across much of the north and west sweets of sesame and jaggery.
Pongal
Tamil Nadu · Four days from about 14 January
Rice is boiled with milk in a new pot until it overflows, and the household calls out pongalo pongal. The third day honours the cattle. The same festival is Sankranti in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Vasant Panchami
North and East India · Magha, January or February
The first day of spring and the worship of Saraswati, goddess of learning. People wear yellow, and in many homes and schools books and instruments are placed before the goddess.
Maha Shivaratri
Across India · Phalguna, February or March
The night of Shiva. Devotees fast and keep a vigil through the night, and temples such as those at Varanasi and Ujjain are thronged from evening to dawn.
Kumbh Mela
Prayagraj, Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain · Each site every twelve years
A bathing pilgrimage that rotates through four sites, each returning on a twelve-year cycle. UNESCO inscribed it in 2017. The Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj ran from January to February 2025.
Holi
Across India, most of all Braj (Mathura and Vrindavan) · Full moon of Phalguna, March
A bonfire, Holika Dahan, the night before, and colours thrown the next day. In Braj the celebration runs for days; in Barsana women playfully chase men with sticks in the Lathmar Holi.
Losar
Tibetan Buddhist communities in Ladakh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh · Dates differ by community and calendar
The new year. Houses are cleaned, offerings are made, and monasteries hold masked dances. The days that follow are given to family and visiting.
Eid al-Fitr
Across India · The day after Ramadan ends; set by the sighting of the moon
Marks the end of the month of fasting. There are prayers at the Eidgah or the mosque, new clothes, gifts called Eidi, and sweet dishes such as sheer khurma and seviyan shared with neighbours of every faith.
Eid al-Adha (Bakrid)
Across India · The tenth of Dhu al-Hijjah
Recalls Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son at God’s command. After the morning prayer, families share the meat in three parts: for the household, for relatives and neighbours, and for the poor.
Muharram and Ashura
Lucknow, Hyderabad and across India · The first month of the Islamic year; Ashura is its tenth day
A time of mourning for Husayn ibn Ali. Processions carry tazias, replicas of his tomb, and many neighbourhoods set up free water stalls; Lucknow’s processions are especially well known.
About the dates. Lunar festivals move each year, and communities within one region can differ by a day. For a particular year, use the Government of India's list of holidays from the Department of Personnel and Training or your local calendar. This list is a sample of a much larger calendar, chosen to cover the regions and faiths of the country, not to rank them.
Sources
- UNESCO: Deepavali inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity — Diwali, inscribed 10 December 2025
- Intangible Cultural Heritage of India, Sangeet Natak Akademi (Ministry of Culture) — India’s inscribed traditions, including Durga Puja (2021), Garba (2023), Kumbh Mela (2017) and Nowruz
- Bastar Dussehra, Incredible India (Ministry of Tourism) — about 75 days, and no burning of Ravana
- Kullu Dussehra — seven days from Vijayadashami
- Hornbill Festival — 1 to 10 December at Kisama, held every year since 2000
- Ganesh Chaturthi — the public festival and Tilak’s part in it from 1893
- Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India — the annual list of holidays, for the dates in a given year
Keep exploring
Food and sweets
Sweets and their places, the festivals they belong to, and the six tastes of a traditional meal.
Everyday traditions
Greeting, floor art, textiles and the small customs of a household, with a rangoli you can make.
Instruments and ragas
Sixteen instruments in four families, and the ragas that belong to the hours of the day.
The India map
Every state and Union Territory, with its people, heritage sites, dance and a festival or taste to start from.