Durga Puja 2026 in Kolkata falls in mid to late October. Mahalaya is on Saturday 10 October 2026, the main puja days run from roughly Friday 16 October (Shashthi) through Vijayadashami on Tuesday 20 October 2026. Some Bengali panchangs place Bijoya Dashami on 21 October, so confirm with your local panchang or puja committee.
Updated August 2026 · HappyFares
Kolkata effectively shuts down and reopens as a street-level art exhibition for five days. If you are flying in, the two things that decide your trip are the tithi calendar and how early you book.
What is the Durga Puja 2026 schedule?
Durga Puja follows the Hindu lunisolar calendar, so the dates move every year. In 2026 the festival sits in the second half of October, roughly three weeks earlier in the season than people who remember last year’s late-September dates will expect.
| Day | Date (2026) | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Mahalaya | Saturday 10 October | Devi Paksha begins, Kumartuli eye-painting |
| Maha Shashthi | Friday 16 October | Bodhan, pandals unveil |
| Maha Saptami | Saturday 17 October | Nabapatrika snan at dawn |
| Maha Ashtami | Sunday 18 October | Kumari puja, Pushpanjali, Sandhi Puja |
| Maha Navami | Monday 19 October | Navami bhog, last full night |
| Vijayadashami | Tuesday 20 October | Sindoor Khela, visarjan |
One honest caveat. The Ashtami tithi in 2026 begins on the morning of 18 October and ends on the morning of 19 October, and different panchang traditions assign the puja day differently within that span. North Indian reckoning places Vijayadashami and Dussehra on Tuesday 20 October, while some Bengali listings show Bijoya Dashami on Wednesday 21 October. Treat 16 to 21 October as the travel window and confirm the exact ritual day locally.
When should you book flights for Durga Puja 2026?
Now, if you have not already. The festival is in October, which means the inbound rush lands in the second week of the month and the return rush follows immediately after Dashami. Both directions are compressed into a few days.
The pattern on Kolkata routes during Puja week is consistent and easy to reason about without needing anyone’s fare data. Demand is concentrated: out-of-state Bengalis and NRI returnees all want to arrive before Shashthi and leave after Dashami, on the same handful of dates. Fares on those specific dates rise as seats sell, and the last fortnight before departure is where the sharpest increases happen.
Three practical rules follow from that. Book the outbound to land on or before 15 October rather than on Shashthi itself, because the day-of-arrival flights fill first. Avoid the Dashami evening return, which is the single most contested departure of the week. And if your dates are even slightly flexible, price a return on 22 or 23 October instead of 21 October, since the wave thins quickly once the immersion is done.
Why is Kolkata’s Durga Puja a UNESCO event?
In December 2021, UNESCO inscribed Durga Puja in Kolkata on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It was the first festival from India to receive that specific recognition.
What UNESCO recognised was not the religious observance alone but the whole public ecosystem around it: the temporary pandal architecture, the idol-making craft, the collective neighbourhood organisation, and the way the festival collapses distinctions of class and caste for a few days of shared public space.
The craft end of that is visible year round in Kumartuli, the sculptors’ quarter in north Kolkata, where the clay idols are built on straw and bamboo frames. Visiting in the weeks before the puja, when the workshops are at full tilt, is one of the better things you can do in the city.
Which pandals belong on your trail?
Plan by geography, not by fame, because the traffic is the constraint. North and south Kolkata are separate evenings.
The north Kolkata cluster is the heritage one, with the older community pujas and the bonedi-bari household pujas that predate the public form. It rewards walking. The south Kolkata cluster is where the big themed art pandals concentrate, and several of them compete seriously for the Sharad Samman awards, which is why the installations get genuinely ambitious.
Sreebhumi Sporting Club in the north east is the reliable blockbuster, usually built as a replica of a famous structure, and it draws the largest single crowd in the city. If you want to see it, go on Shashthi or Saptami rather than Ashtami, when queues can run for hours.
What happens on Vijayadashami?
Dashami is the farewell. The morning belongs to Sindoor Khela, when married women offer sindoor to the goddess and then smear it on each other, and in recent years many pujas have opened the ritual more widely.
Through the afternoon and evening the idols are carried in procession to the Hooghly for visarjan, with Babughat among the main immersion points. Crowds are dense, the ghats are slippery, and the processions are loud and joyful. Keep valuables minimal, agree a meeting point with your group, and do not plan anything time-critical, such as a flight, for that evening.
A few days after Dashami the state government stages the Red Road Carnival, where selected pujas parade their idols and performances before immersion. The date is announced each year, so check locally if you want to build a trip around it.
What are the most common Durga Puja travel mistakes?
Leaving the booking until the month of travel is the expensive one, because the demand is concentrated on so few dates. Booking the Dashami evening return is the second, since visarjan traffic can make the airport run unpredictable.
Staying in Salt Lake or New Town looks economical until you add nightly late cab fares back from pandal hopping in central and north Kolkata. And trying to see everything on Ashtami, the busiest night of the five, is how people end up spending the evening in queues rather than in pandals. Spread the trail across Shashthi, Saptami and Navami instead.
Common Questions
What are the Durga Puja 2026 dates?
Mahalaya is Saturday 10 October 2026 and the main days run from about Friday 16 October to Vijayadashami on Tuesday 20 October 2026. Some Bengali panchangs list Bijoya Dashami on 21 October.
Is Durga Puja on the same day as Dussehra?
They fall together. Vijayadashami, the tenth day, is observed as Dussehra across much of north India and as Bijoya Dashami in Bengal, on Tuesday 20 October 2026.
Is Durga Puja a good time for non-Bengalis to visit Kolkata?
It is the best time to see the city, provided you accept the crowds and book early. The pandals are free and open to everyone.
How many pandals can you see in one night?
Realistically four to six if you stay within one part of the city and travel on foot and by metro. Attempting to cross between north and south in a single evening rarely works.
What is the weather like in Kolkata in October?
Post-monsoon and warm, typically humid early in the month and easing later. Light cottons, comfortable walking shoes and an umbrella are sensible.
How do I reach the airport during Puja week?
Allow far more time than usual, especially around Dashami. The metro to Dum Dum followed by a prepaid cab is often more predictable than a single cab ride across the city.
What is the difference between bonedi-bari and sarbojanin puja?
A bonedi-bari puja is the private household puja of an old family, usually more traditional and lower key. A sarbojanin puja is the public community puja, which is where the large pandals and themed art belong.
Compare Kolkata flights for your Durga Puja dates on HappyFares, and check nearby dates before you settle on the peak-day departure.
Festival dates follow the lunisolar calendar and observance can vary by panchang and community. Confirm exact dates locally, and verify fares and schedules with the airline before you travel.
