Durga Puja 2026: dates, Mahalaya, and why the festival matters

Durga Puja is one of the largest Hindu festivals in the world, centred on the worship of the goddess Durga and her victory over the buffalo demon Mahishasura, according to UNESCO's inscription description of the festival as practised in Kolkata.

The festival is observed over ten days in the Hindu lunar month of Ashvin, which usually falls in September or October, with the final five days considered the most significant, per the English Wikipedia summary of the festival.

When is Durga Puja 2026?

According to date listings compiled from the Hindu panchang (lunar calendar) by festival-information site Devaastha, Mahalaya falls on Saturday, 10 October 2026, marking the symbolic start of the Durga Puja season. The main worship days follow: Maha Shashthi on 17 October, Maha Saptami on 18 October, Maha Ashtami on 19 October, and Maha Navami on 20 October.

Devaastha's listing notes that the pan-India panchang places Vijaya Dashami on 20 October, the same day as Navami, while Bengal's own panchang places Bijoya Dashami a day later, on Wednesday, 21 October. This means Bengali households and many community pujas in West Bengal conclude the festival — including idol immersion — one day after the date observed in some other regions.

Mahalaya: the day the goddess's fortnight begins

Mahalaya marks the new moon (Amavasya) at the end of Pitru Paksha, the fortnight dedicated to honouring deceased ancestors, and the start of Devi Paksha, the fortnight of the goddess, according to the Hindu calendar information gathered for this piece. On this day, many Bengali families perform tarpan — ritual offerings to ancestors — at riverbanks at dawn.

Mahalaya is also associated with a decades-old radio tradition. Since 22 September 1931, All India Radio's Kolkata station has broadcast Mahishasuramardini, a programme of Sanskrit hymns, Bengali devotional songs and narration, at 4 a.m. on Mahalaya morning, according to a feature by Homegrown on its history. The show was created by narrator Birendra Krishna Bhadra together with scriptwriter Bani Kumar and composer Pankaj Mullick, and has aired nearly every year since, Homegrown reported, noting that a mid-1970s attempt to replace Bhadra's recording drew public backlash that cemented his association with the broadcast.

Core rituals of the five main days

• Maha Shashthi: the goddess's idol is formally welcomed, with the Bodhon ritual inaugurating the puja, per Wikipedia's overview of the festival.
• Maha Saptami and Maha Ashtami: daily worship (puja) and offerings continue at pandals, temporary structures housing clay idols of Durga and her family.
• Sandhi Puja: a ritual performed at the junction of Ashtami and Navami, described on Wikipedia as a roughly 48-minute ceremony.
• Maha Navami: the final day of worship before the goddess's departure, marked by further offerings and cultural performances.
• Vijaya/Bijoya Dashami: idols are immersed in rivers or other water bodies (visarjan), women apply vermilion to each other in the Sindoor Khela ritual, and communities perform the Dhunuchi Naach, a dance with burning incense pots, according to Wikipedia's description of the festival's rituals.

Where it is celebrated and why it matters

Durga Puja is observed most prominently in the Indian state of West Bengal, with Kolkata as its cultural centre, as well as in Odisha, Tripura, Bihar and Assam, and in Bangladesh and Nepal, according to Wikipedia. Diaspora communities abroad also hold large-scale celebrations.

Kolkata hosted more than 3,000 Barowari (community) pujas in 2022, including more than 200 with budgets exceeding one crore rupees, according to Wikipedia's overview of the festival. Other West Bengal cities with large numbers of pandals include Asansol, Durgapur and Siliguri, the same source notes, while many pandals now compete on elaborate, theme-based designs rather than traditional styles.

In the lead-up to the festival, artisans sculpt the Durga idols out of clay over several months, a craft tradition UNESCO highlights as part of the celebration. Around Mahalaya, artisans traditionally perform Chakshu Daan, the ritual painting of the idol's eyes, which Wikipedia's overview of the festival describes as symbolising the image's awakening ahead of formal consecration.

UNESCO recognition

On 15 December 2021, Durga Puja in Kolkata was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. UNESCO described the festival as involving the collective worship of the goddess through clay images displayed in pandals, alongside folk music, culinary traditions, crafts and performing arts.

UNESCO said the inscription highlighted both the festival's religious role and its significance for craftspeople, artists and local economies tied to pandal construction, idol-making and related trades.