Festivals & occasions 2026

Most of the dates above move from year to year, and they move for different reasons depending on which calendar the day belongs to. It is worth knowing which kind you are looking at before you book anything.

Lunisolar festivals, which move the most

The majority of Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist festivals are fixed to a tithi, a lunar day, rather than to a date. A lunar month runs about 29.5 days, so the Gregorian date drifts backwards roughly eleven days a year until an extra month, the adhika maas, pulls it forward again. That is why Diwali and Holi can swing by two or three weeks between years.

A tithi also does not start at midnight. It begins and ends at a particular moment, and which calendar day it counts as depends on whether it is running at sunrise, at sunset, or during a specific window. This is why panchangs occasionally disagree, and why an occasional year loses a day when two tithis fall inside one sunrise-to-sunrise span.

Solar festivals, which barely move at all

A smaller group follows the sun's entry into a zodiac sign instead. Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Vishu, Vaisakhi and the Bihus sit in the same few days every year, in mid-January and mid-April, shifting by at most a day.

Moon sighting, and why some dates say “may vary”

Islamic observances including Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha and Ramadan depend on the crescent being sighted, so the date is only confirmed a day or two ahead and can differ between cities and countries. Where this calendar marks a date as uncertain, that is what it means: treat it as a planning estimate and confirm locally.

Holidays are a separate question

A festival being in this calendar does not make it a day off. India has three national holidays: Republic Day, Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanti. Everything else is decided by state governments or sits on the central list of gazetted and restricted holidays, which is why a colleague in Kerala and one in Punjab get different days off in the same week.

If you are wishing someone abroad

Send it on their day, not India's. Because tithis are measured against local sunrise and sunset, a family in the Gulf, Europe or North America can observe the same festival a day earlier or later. A panchang set to their own city is the one that decides.