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Festivals & events
Celebrate India
India's calendar bursts with religious, regional, musical, cultural and culinary celebrations. Filter by month, type or state to plan around the right moment.
Happening soon
Upcoming festivals
Indian festivals mostly follow lunar calendars, so the exact days shift each year. We name the month they fall in and leave the day to the panchang closer to the time.
Festival calendarFestival directory
217 festivals
Use the calendar when timing is the main decision, or browse the directory for context, location and meaning.
Shamlaji Melo
NovemberFairThe historic Shamlaji Temple, situated on the banks of the Meshwo River, Aravalli district, Gujarat.
A huge tribal trade fair and bathing pilgrimage, drawing communities to worship Lord Shamlaji.
Shillong Cherry Blossom Festival
NovemberMusicShillong, East Khasi Hills, Meghalaya — the 2025 edition used J.N. Stadium and other city grounds.
A modern government tourism event with no ritual content and no history before 2016. Its honest interest is as one of the northeast's largest music events.
Sohrai
NovemberRegionalTribal regions of Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal (Santhal, Munda and Oraon communities).
A livestock harvest festival where cattle are bathed and tribal women paint spectacular geometric murals on mud walls.
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Sonepur Cattle Fair
November - DecemberFairSonepur, at the confluence of the Ganges and Gandak rivers, Saran district, Bihar.
An ancient and enormous livestock fair at the sacred confluence of the Ganga and Gandak rivers, long famous for its elephant trading.
Thalfavang Kut
NovemberCulturalHmuifang Tourist Resort on the 1,619 m Hmuifang peak, about 50 km south of Aizawl, Mizoram.
A state-organised event rather than a surviving village rite — the Tourism Department runs it to promote tourism, and it is the Mizo festival most set up for outside visitors.
Tokhü Emong
NovemberRegionalWokha district, the Lotha Naga homeland, with Wokha town holding the main celebration.
A living pre-Christian harvest and reconciliation tradition, now kept by a largely Christian Lotha community and backed by a state holiday.
Vautha Mela
NovemberFairVautha, at the Saptasangam (confluence of seven rivers), Dholka taluka, Ahmedabad district, Gujarat.
A historic animal trading fair where thousands of decorated donkeys and camels are bartered at a seven-river confluence.
Wangala Festival
NovemberCulturalProminently celebrated in the Garo Hills region of Meghalaya, as well as in parts of Assam and neighboring Garo settlements.
A post-harvest thanksgiving of the Garo people to the sun god Misi Saljong, famous for synchronised drumming and traditional dance in colourful costume.
Christmas
DecemberReligiousIconic in Goa, Kerala, Northeast India, and major metropolitan cities.
Celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, marked by midnight mass, carols, nativity scenes, decorated trees and feasting — especially vibrant in Goa and Kerala.
Christmas in Mizoram
DecemberReligiousEvery locality and village in Mizoram, through the church rather than the street. Aizawl has the largest concentration.
The clearest example in India of a pan-Indian festival taking a wholly local form — Christianity arrived with Welsh Presbyterian and Baptist missionaries and reorganised the Mizo year around it.
Commemoration of Netaji's First Flag Hoisting
DecemberCulturalFlag Point, Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair), Andaman & Nicobar Islands, with observances at the Cellular Jail complex and the Martyrs Column.
A state observance rather than a community festival, and one worth presenting with its complications intact rather than as simple commemoration.
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Feast of St. Francis Xavier
DecemberReligiousBasilica of Bom Jesus, Old Goa (Velha Goa), Goa.
A solemn Christian pilgrimage honouring the patron saint of Goa, with special open-air masses that draw worshippers from around the world.
Festa de Diu
DecemberCulturalAcross Diu island, staged in four zones — the beaches at Ghoghla and Nagoa, the Naida Caves, Diu Fort, and an amphitheatre.
A modern state tourism initiative launched in 2015 by the UT Administration with a private events company. It should not be presented as an inherited tradition.
Galdan Namchot
DecemberReligiousThroughout Ladakh, across all households and major Gelugpa monasteries such as Thiksey, Likir, and Spituk.
Commemorates the passing of Je Tsongkhapa, when lamps fill the city to mark the Ladakhi New Year.
Hornbill Festival
DecemberCulturalNaga Heritage Village in Kisama, located near Kohima, Nagaland.
The 'Festival of Festivals' showcasing all of Nagaland's major tribes — traditional dances, music, indigenous games, crafts, and food in one grand cultural gathering.
Island Tourism Festival
DecemberCulturalThe ITF Ground on VIP Road, Sri Vijaya Puram (Port Blair), Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The 2025 edition ran at thirteen venues across South, North and Middle Andaman.
A modern government tourism event about forty years old, not an ancient tradition. Its real value is as the one occasion each year when the archipelago's settler communities and the Nicobari community appear on the same stage.
Konark Dance Festival
DecemberCulturalHeld at the open-air auditorium with the Konark Sun Temple as the backdrop, in Puri district, Odisha.
A festival of Indian classical dance — Odissi, Bharatanatyam, Kathak and more — performed in an open-air setting before the UNESCO Sun Temple.
Losoong (Namsoong)
DecemberCulturalLosoong (also called Namsoong) is the Sikkimese New Year, marking the end of the harvest season for the Bhutia and Lepcha communities. Gompas hold cham (masked) dances that drive out the old year's evil spirits before the new one begins.
Madai
DecemberFairBastar division and Kanker district — Charama, Kurna, Narayanpur and many other villages each hold their own.
A living tribal institution rather than a tourism product — simultaneously a religious gathering, a market and a social occasion.
National Minicoy Festival
DecemberCulturalKodi Beach and the lagoon at Minicoy, the southernmost island of the archipelago, 398 km south-west of Kochi.
A tourism-department event rather than an inherited festival, first held in the 2010s. Its value is as the one organised occasion on which Minicoy's distinct Maldivian-descended culture is presented publicly.
Pawl Kut
DecemberRegionalStatewide across Mizoram — in farming villages as part of the agricultural cycle, and in Aizawl and other towns as a community occasion.
The closing thanksgiving of the Mizo farming year, and described by Mizoram Tourism as the greatest of the state's festivals.
Sunburn Festival
DecemberMusicGoa, usually hosted across prominent beachside venues like Vagator or Candolim.
A massive multi-day EDM festival drawing top global DJs and huge crowds, a cornerstone of Goa's December party season.
Urs Ajmer Sharif
DecemberReligiousCommemorates the death anniversary of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, drawing multi-faith pilgrims for Qawwalis.
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Vaikuntha Ekadashi
DecemberReligiousSrirangam Ranganathaswamy Temple, Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, and major Vaishnavite shrines across India.
Celebrates the opening of Lord Vishnu's inner cosmic gate. Devotees pass through special temple portals for salvation.
Visakha Utsav
DecemberCulturalRK Beach (Ramakrishna Mission Beach), Visakhapatnam (Vizag), Andhra Pradesh.
A lively beach carnival on the coast of Andhra, with regional seafood stalls and indigenous folk crafts.
Basant Panchami
JanuaryReligiousPan-India, with extraordinary cultural density in West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Punjab.
Welcomes the arrival of spring and honours Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, arts, and learning. Marked by yellow dresses and sweets.
Bikaner Camel Festival
JanuaryFairBikaner, Rajasthan.
A dazzling celebration of the desert camel, featuring fur-cutting competitions, camel dancing, races, and folk fire dances.
International Kite Festival (Uttarayan)
JanuaryCulturalAhmedabad (Sabarmati Riverfront), Surat, Vadodara, Jaipur, and across Gujarat
Marks the northward sky journey of the sun. The entire state moves to the rooftops for massive kite-flying duels.
Jaisalmer Desert Festival
January - FebruaryCulturalJaisalmer, Rajasthan, with major events unfolding amidst the Sam Sand Dunes.
A vibrant celebration of Rajasthani desert culture in the Thar — camel races, turban-tying and moustache contests, folk music, and dunes under the full moon.
Jonbeel Mela
JanuaryFairThe banks of Joonbeel, a crescent-shaped wetland at Dayang Belguri near Jagiroad, Morigaon district, about 3 km from Jagiroad town.
Widely described as the only fair in India where barter survives as a functioning practice — and reporters on the ground in January 2025 confirmed the exchange was real, not staged.
Lohri
JanuaryRegionalPunjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, and Jammu region
Marks the passing of the depth of winter and the harvest of the Rabi crops. Features massive night bonfires, dhol beats, Bhangra, and sweets.
Lokrang Utsav
JanuaryCulturalThe Ravindra Bhavan open-air complex, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
A large heritage exhibition of India's tribal crafts, performing arts, and ways of life.
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Magh Mela (Prayagraj)
January - FebruaryReligiousTakes place at the Triveni Sangam, the sacred confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna, and mythical Saraswati rivers in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh.
A 44-day annual gathering where pilgrims camp on the riverbank and take holy dips on auspicious bathing days (Makar Sankranti, Mauni Amavasya, Basant Panchami).
Makar Sankranti
JanuaryReligiousCelebrated nationwide across India, with major cultural and kite-flying spectacles in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and holy river dips in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
A harvest and solstice festival marking the end of winter. Celebrated with kite-flying, bonfires, sesame-jaggery sweets and holy river dips.
Makaravilakku
JanuaryReligiousSabarimala Sree Dharma Sastha Temple, Pathanamthitta district, Kerala.
The climax of Lord Ayyappa's rituals, when the celestial light appears on Ponnambalamedu hill.
Me-Dam-Me-Phi
JanuaryReligiousAcross Assam wherever Tai-Ahom communities live, concentrated in Upper Assam — Sivasagar, Charaideo, Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Golaghat.
One of very few ancestor-worship festivals in India with formal state recognition — it is a gazetted state holiday in Assam, and the clearest surviving expression of Tai-Ahom religious tradition.