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Indian festival calendar

See which festivals are coming and how many days away they are.

How this works: Festival dates shown in IST (India Standard Time). Days-until is calculated based on your device's current date. For lunar festivals, dates may shift by a day depending on regional almanacs (panchang).

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Upcoming Festivals

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Recent Festivals

NRIWallah team

Updated October 2026

Why NRIs need a festival calendar

Abroad, nothing signals that a festival is near: no television announcements, no decorations, no work holiday. It is easy to learn that Diwali is this Sunday from a phone call, when it is too late to order sweets or ingredients.

The calendar gives you enough notice to:

  • Book India trips early enough to avoid the highest fares
  • Schedule family calls around the festival, not days late
  • Order ingredients from the local Indian store or Amazon before they run out
  • Plan the day: decorations, clothes and a meal
  • Take a day off work if the festival matters to you and falls mid-week

Major festivals to plan around

Three festivals drive most travel and celebration decisions for NRIs in the UK and US:

Diwali (October-November)

A five-day festival: Dhanteras, Naraka Chaturdashi, Lakshmi Puja, Govardhan Puja and Bhai Dooj. Flights to India are expensive around it, and many temples and community groups hold functions on the nearest weekend.

Holi (March)

The festival of colours. Many NRI communities hold outdoor gatherings, weather permitting.

Eid (varies)

For Muslim NRIs, both Eid al-Fitr (end of Ramadan) and Eid al-Adha (commemorating Ibrahim’s sacrifice) are major family days. Date shifts ~11 days earlier each Gregorian year.

Regional festivals

If your family is from a particular region, these matter beyond the national list:

  • Onam (Kerala) — September-ish, ten-day flower carpets, the famous Onam Sadhya feast
  • Pongal (Tamil Nadu) — January, four-day harvest festival
  • Durga Puja (West Bengal): September-October, the main festival of the Bengali year
  • Chhath (Bihar, UP, Jharkhand) — November, four days of strict fasting and sun worship
  • Bihu (Assam) — three Bihus across the year marking agricultural cycles
  • Ugadi / Gudi Padwa (Karnataka/Andhra/Telangana/Maharashtra) — March-April, regional new year

How dates are chosen

Lunar calendar festivals can shift by a day depending on which panchang your community follows. This calendar uses the most widely accepted national date for India — your local community or temple may observe slightly differently. If a date matters for booking or rituals, double-check with your local source.

All dates shown in IST. For festival times that require muhurta calculation (e.g., Lakshmi Puja, Karva Chauth moonrise), consult a local panchang as those times are timezone-dependent.

Planning around festivals

Festival dates affect more than celebrations. Indian banks and government offices close on many of them, so check the bank holidays list before you time a transfer. Fares to India rise around the major festivals, and the trip cost calculator shows what a peak-week trip adds. When you need to fix a call time with family in India, the IST time converter gives the local time at your end.

Common questions

Most Indian festivals follow the Hindu lunisolar calendar (panchang) or the Islamic lunar calendar (Hijri), neither of which lines up with the Gregorian calendar. Hindu festivals such as Diwali and Holi move within a window of about a month from year to year, and Islamic festivals such as Eid move roughly 11 days earlier each year. National holidays such as Independence Day (15 August) and Republic Day (26 January) have fixed dates.
Festival dates often vary slightly by region based on local panchangs (almanacs). For example, Diwali is observed in two-day windows in some states, and Pongal/Makar Sankranti can fall on different days. This calendar uses the most widely accepted national date — check your local community calendar for regional differences.
Festival dates are shown for India Standard Time (IST). For most festivals, only the date matters — celebrations happen throughout the day. For festivals with specific muhurta (auspicious times), like Karva Chauth moonrise or Lakshmi Puja, check a local panchang as those times will be different in your country. Use our IST Time Converter to convert specific puja times.
Many NRIs do, and fares rise around Diwali, the Christmas and New Year weeks and the summer school holidays. Book early for those dates. The travel guide has booking tips, and the trip cost calculator shows what a peak-season trip adds.
National holidays (Independence Day, Republic Day, Gandhi Jayanti) are confirmed and gazetted. Religious festival dates are based on widely accepted Hindu/Muslim/Sikh/Christian calendars but the Indian government’s official gazetted holiday list is the authoritative source — published annually by the Ministry of Personnel. Some festivals are “restricted holidays” varying by state.

Every rate and threshold here is sourced, dated and shown on the page — but tax rules change, and we would rather be told than be wrong. Reports go to the team that maintains the tool. If you can point at the official source, that gets it fixed fastest.

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Prefer email? admin@nriwallah.com. How we source and review these numbers is set out in our methodology.

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