Indian Festival Dates
— November 2026 to April 2027.
Every date below has been checked, and where sources disagree the page says which answer was taken and why. Each festival links to how to explain it to a child, age by age.
Why calendars disagree
Most Indian festivals follow the moon, so they move against the Gregorian calendar each year. A few — Sankranti, Baisakhi — follow the sun instead and barely move at all. And when the moment that decides a festival falls near midnight or after sunset, the observance can shift to the next day, which is why two reputable calendars can print different dates for the same festival. Where that happens below, it is explained rather than hidden.
Lakshmi Puja, the main night. Five days in all.
Two days after Diwali.
Nehru’s birthday. Fixed date.
Sandhya Arghya, the main evening.
Full moon of Kartik.
Fixed date.
Fixed date.
The night before Sankranti. Some families keep 13 January.
The sun enters Makara late on the 14th, so the observance moves to the next morning.
Fixed date.
Fifth day of the waxing moon in Magha.
Kept through the night of the 6th into the 7th. North American calendars show 5 March.
Depends on the sighting of the moon; confirmed the evening before.
The bonfire, the evening before Holi.
Rangwali Holi, or Dhulandi.
The sun enters Mesha. A great many Indian new years land on one day.
What is not on this page yet.
Ram Navami, Raksha Bandhan, Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri, Dussehra and Diwali 2027 are not listed here, because they have not yet been checked against a primary source. A wrong festival date is worse than a missing one, so they go up when they are verified rather than before.
In the meantime: Navratri · Dussehra · Janmashtami · Ganesh Chaturthi · Raksha Bandhan · All festival stories
One email, the evening before each festival.
The story told simply, at three different ages, ready to read aloud at bedtime. Nothing else.
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