Durga Puja 2026
The autumn homecoming of Mother Durga — five days, their tithis, and what happens on each.
17 October 2026 — 21 October 2026
Durga Puja 2026 Nirghanto
| Observance | Begins | Ends |
|---|---|---|
| Maha Shasthi17 October 2026, Saturday · Mula | 3:25 am16 Oct, Fri | 5:54 am17 Oct, Sat |
| Maha Saptami18 October 2026, Sunday · Purva Ashadha | 5:54 am17 Oct, Sat | 8:28 am18 Oct, Sun |
| Maha Ashtami19 October 2026, Monday · Uttara Ashadha | 8:28 am18 Oct, Sun | 10:52 am19 Oct, Mon |
| Maha Navami20 October 2026, Tuesday · Shravana | 10:52 am19 Oct, Mon | 12:50 pm20 Oct, Tue |
| Vijaya Dashami21 October 2026, Wednesday · Dhanishta | 12:50 pm20 Oct, Tue | 2:12 pm21 Oct, Wed |
| Sandhi PujaAshtami–Navami junction | 10:28 am19 Oct, Mon | 11:16 am19 Oct, Mon |
Ashtami Pushpanjali: anjali is offered while the Ashtami tithi runs, so in 2026 it must be given before 10:52 am on 19 October 2026, Monday. Most pandals hold it in the morning, well before that.
Computed for Kolkata from the Swiss Ephemeris using the Lahiri ayanamsa, by the udayatithi rule — the tithi running at sunrise names the day. How this is calculated.
What happens on each day
Maha Shasthi মহাষষ্ঠী17 October 2026, Saturday
Bodhon, Amantran and Adhibas — the Goddess is formally woken, invited and consecrated. The face of the idol is unveiled on this evening, and for most neighbourhoods this is the night pandal-hopping begins in earnest.
Maha Saptami মহাসপ্তমী18 October 2026, Sunday
Nabapatrika Snan at dawn: nine plants bound together — including the banana plant dressed in a sari that gets mistaken for "Kola Bou" — are bathed in a river or pond and installed beside Ganesha. Pran Pratistha follows, and the Goddess is considered present in the idol from this point.
Maha Ashtami মহাষ্টমী19 October 2026, Monday
The main Pushpanjali day, when most families offer anjali on an empty stomach. Kumari Puja is performed in many pandals, and the day ends in Sandhi Puja at the junction of Ashtami and Navami.
Maha Navami মহানবমী20 October 2026, Tuesday
Maha Snan and the Navami homa. Traditionally the day of bali, now almost always symbolic — a fruit, gourd or sugarcane in place of an animal. The mood shifts: this is the last full day, and everyone knows it.
Vijaya Dashami বিজয়া দশমী21 October 2026, Wednesday
Darpan Bisarjan, then Sindoor Khela and Visarjan. Married women smear each other with vermilion before the idol leaves, and the immersion processions run from afternoon into the night.
Why autumn, and why this tithi
The canonical time to worship Durga is spring — Basanti Puja, in Chaitra. The autumn worship is akaal bodhon, an untimely waking: Rama is said to have invoked the Goddess out of season before facing Ravana, and the Bengali festival follows that precedent rather than the older calendar. It is the reason the largest festival of the Bengali year sits in Ashwin at all.
The five days run from Shukla Shashthi to Shukla Dashami of Ashwin. They are lunar days, not solar ones: because a tithi runs anywhere from about 19 to 26 hours, the Gregorian dates move by roughly a fortnight from year to year, and occasionally a tithi is skipped or repeated so that two puja days share one date or one day stretches across two.
Mahalaya, on the Amavasya that precedes the puja — 10 October 2026 this year, is not itself a puja day. It marks the end of Pitri Paksha, when Tarpan is offered to ancestors, and the beginning of Devi Paksha. The Mahalaya guide covers the Tarpan rules and mantras.
Sandhi Puja
Sandhi Puja is the most precisely timed moment of the five days: the last 24 minutes of Ashtami and the first 24 minutes of Navami, 48 minutes across the junction of the two tithis. It marks Durga taking the Chamunda form to kill Chanda and Munda, and is observed with 108 lamps and 108 lotuses.
Because it hangs off a tithi boundary rather than a clock, it can fall at any hour — before dawn one year, mid-afternoon the next — and it is the one timing on this page worth confirming with the priest conducting your pandal's puja, since a pandal will often begin its own preparations well before the window opens.
The junction is solved from the Swiss Ephemeris as the instant the Moon's elongation from the Sun reaches 96° — the eighth multiple of the 12° that defines a tithi — against the Lahiri ayanamsa, for Kolkata. Times are IST, and the window is the same 48 minutes everywhere: it is an instant in time, not a local sunrise, so unlike the puja dates it does not shift across the state. How this is calculated.
Pushpanjali Mantras & Rules
All three Ashtami anjali mantras with transliteration and meaning, and the rules on fasting and flower offerings.
🏺Dhunuchi Naach & Sindoor Khela
The incense dance of Navami and the vermilion custom that closes Dashami.
Common questions
When is Durga Puja 2026?
Durga Puja 2026 runs from Maha Shasthi on 17 October 2026 (Saturday) to Vijaya Dashami on 21 October 2026 (Wednesday). These dates are computed from the tithi rather than taken from a printed almanac — each day is the one on which the corresponding tithi is running at sunrise.
What is the Ashtami Pushpanjali time for Durga Puja 2026?
Anjali is offered while the Ashtami tithi runs. In 2026 Ashtami begins at 8:28 am on 18 October 2026, Sunday and ends at 10:52 am on 19 October 2026, Monday, so the Maha Ashtami anjali must be completed before 10:52 am. Pandals announce their own anjali rounds within that window.
Why do some almanacs give different Durga Puja dates?
Because the puja day is fixed by tithi, not by the calendar date, and a tithi can start and end at any hour. The convention used here is udayatithi — the tithi running at sunrise names the day. A Surya Siddhanta almanac computes the tithi boundary from classical mean values rather than observed positions, so where a boundary falls close to sunrise the two traditions can name different days.
What is Sandhi Puja and why is its timing so exact?
Sandhi Puja spans the junction of Ashtami and Navami: the final 24 minutes of Ashtami and the first 24 minutes of Navami, 48 minutes in total. It commemorates the moment Durga took the Chamunda form to kill Chanda and Munda. Because it is anchored to a tithi boundary rather than a clock time, it can fall at any hour of the day or night, and it shifts from year to year. In 2026 the Ashtami tithi ends at 10:52 am IST on 19 October 2026, Monday, so the window runs from 10:28 am to 11:16 am for Kolkata.
Is Durga Puja the same as Dussehra?
They coincide but are not the same observance. Vijaya Dashami, the last day of Durga Puja, falls on the same tithi as Dussehra, which in much of northern India marks Rama’s victory over Ravana and ends with the burning of effigies. In Bengal the day is Durga’s departure for Kailash, marked by Sindoor Khela and immersion.