Durga Puja 2026: Dates, Rituals and How Bengal Celebrates

Durga Puja 2026 runs from Maha Shashthi on Friday, 16 October to Vijaya Dashami on Tuesday, 20 October. Mahalaya, the day that opens the season, falls on Saturday, 10 October 2026.

It is the largest festival in West Bengal and among Bengalis everywhere, and it works on two levels at once. It is a religious observance with a fixed sequence of rituals, and it is a street festival of temporary art, with pandals that take months to build and are taken down within a week. Kolkata's Durga Puja was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021.

Durga Puja 2026 date list

Day	Date (2026)	What happens
Mahalaya	Saturday, 10 October	Tarpan for ancestors at the river, and the traditional dawn broadcast of Mahishasuramardini. The goddess is invited.
Maha Shashthi	Friday, 16 October	Bodhon, the ceremonial awakening of Durga. The face of the idol is unveiled and pandals open to the public.
Maha Saptami	Saturday, 17 October	Navapatrika snan at dawn, the bathing of nine plants. Kola Bou is installed beside Ganesha.
Maha Ashtami	Sunday, 18 October	The biggest day. Pushpanjali in the morning, Kumari Puja in some places, and Sandhi Puja at the junction with Navami.
Maha Navami	Monday, 19 October	Maha Aarti and the Navami bhog. The last full day of worship.
Vijaya Dashami	Tuesday, 20 October	Darpan visarjan, Sindoor Khela, then the immersion procession.

A caution worth reading before you plan anything. Bengali panchangs following the Bishuddha Siddhanta can differ by a day from the North Indian almanacs used for Navratri, and Ashtami and Navami sometimes compress into the same calendar date depending on when the tithi turns. Confirm with your local puja committee or a Bengali panchang before booking travel.

The rituals, in order

Mahalaya and Pitru Paksha

Mahalaya closes Pitru Paksha, the fortnight for remembering ancestors, and opens Devi Paksha. Men and women perform tarpan at the Ganga at dawn, offering water to their ancestors. The other half of the day belongs to a radio programme: Mahishasuramardini, a chandipath and song sequence first broadcast in 1931 and voiced by Birendra Krishna Bhadra, still played before sunrise across Bengal. It is one of the few pieces of radio anywhere that an entire region wakes up for.

Bodhon and Chokkhudaan

On Shashthi the goddess is formally awakened and welcomed. Chokkhudaan, the painting of the eyes on the idol, is done by the artisan, traditionally on Mahalaya morning in the Kumartuli workshops where the idols are made.

Navapatrika and Kola Bou

At dawn on Saptami, nine plants are bound together, bathed in the river and dressed in a white sari with a red border, then placed to the right of Ganesha. This is the Navapatrika, popularly called Kola Bou because the banana plant is the most visible of the nine. The common joke that she is Ganesha's wife is folklore. She represents the nine forms of the goddess in plant form.

Sandhi Puja

The most charged ritual of the festival. It runs for 48 minutes spanning the last 24 minutes of Ashtami and the first 24 minutes of Navami, marking the moment Durga took the Chamunda form to kill Chanda and Munda. 108 lamps are lit and 108 lotuses offered. Because it is fixed to the tithi and not the clock, it can fall at any hour, including the middle of the night.

Kumari Puja

A young pre-adolescent girl is worshipped as a living form of the goddess. Belur Math's Kumari Puja, started by Swami Vivekananda in 1901, is the best known and draws large crowds on Ashtami.

Sindoor Khela and Visarjan

On Dashami, after darpan visarjan, the symbolic immersion of the goddess's reflection in a mirror, married women offer sweets and vermilion to the idol and then smear sindoor on each other. Many committees have opened Sindoor Khela to widows and to trans women in recent years, reversing a long standing exclusion. Then the idols go to the river in procession, with dhak drums and dancing, and the year's puja ends.

Pandal hopping in Kolkata

Pandals are temporary structures built around a theme, and the good ones are genuinely ambitious pieces of installation art. The competition between paras, meaning neighbourhoods, drives the standard up every year.

•       Bagbazar Sarbojanin and Kumartuli Park, for traditional ekchala idols in North Kolkata.

•       Mohammad Ali Park and Santosh Mitra Square, known for large scale replica themes.

•       Ekdalia Evergreen, Singhi Park and Ballygunge Cultural, the South Kolkata heavyweights.

•       College Square, for the lighting and the reflection on the water tank.

•      Kumartuli itself, the idol makers' quarter, worth visiting weeks before the puja to see the idols being built.

Practical advice: crowds peak from Saptami evening to Navami night, the metro runs extended hours, and large parts of central Kolkata are closed to cars. Many people now do their pandal hopping on Chaturthi and Panchami, before the official start, precisely to avoid the crush.

Durga Puja food

•       Bhog khichuri, moong dal and rice cooked together, served with labra, a mixed vegetable dish, and a fried item. The Ashtami and Navami lunch at most pandals.

•       Luchi with alur dom, the standard Bengali festive breakfast.

•       Ilish and mangsho, hilsa and mutton, on Navami in most non vegetarian households.

•       Mishti, especially sandesh, rosogolla and nolen gur sweets, exchanged through the five days.

•       Payesh, rice pudding with date palm jaggery, on Dashami.

Durga Puja beyond Bengal

Odisha, Assam, Tripura and Bihar all celebrate Durga Puja on the same dates, and it is a public holiday in each. Cuttack is known for its silver filigree chandi medha idol backdrops, some weighing over a hundred kilograms. Delhi's Chittaranjan Park and Mumbai's Bengali associations run large pujas for the diaspora, as do committees in London, New Jersey and Dubai. In Bangladesh, where it is also a public holiday, Dhakeshwari Temple in Dhaka is the main national puja.

Frequently asked questions about Durga Puja 2026

Q. When is Durga Puja in 2026?

A. Shashthi is Friday, 16 October and Vijaya Dashami is Tuesday, 20 October 2026. Mahalaya falls earlier, on Saturday, 10 October.

Q. What is the difference between Durga Puja and Navratri?

A. They overlap on the calendar but differ in form. Navratri is nine nights of fasting, Ghatasthapana and garba across North and West India. Durga Puja is a five day festival centred on pandals, idols and a fixed ritual sequence from Shashthi to Dashami.

Q. What is Sandhi Puja and when is it in 2026?

A. A 48 minute ritual spanning the last 24 minutes of Ashtami and the first 24 minutes of Navami. In 2026 it falls at the Ashtami to Navami junction on 18 to 19 October. Check a Bengali panchang for the exact clock time in your city, as it varies.

Q. What is Kola Bou?

A. The Navapatrika, nine plants bound together, bathed at dawn on Saptami and dressed in a sari. It represents nine forms of the goddess, and is placed beside Ganesha.

Q. Is Durga Puja a public holiday?

A. Yes in West Bengal, Odisha, Tripura, Assam and Bihar, usually for several days around Ashtami to Dashami. Elsewhere in India only Dussehra on 20 October is a holiday.

Q. When is the best time to visit Kolkata for Durga Puja 2026?

A. Arrive by Panchami, 15 October, if you want to see pandals without the worst crowds. Saptami to Navami, 17 to 19 October, is the peak, and Dashami on 20 October is for the immersion processions.

Q. Why was Kolkata's Durga Puja given UNESCO status?

A. It was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2021, recognised for the way it brings together religion, art, craft and public participation across class and community lines.