Festival Countdown — Days Left for Diwali, Holi and Major Festivals

This festival countdown tells you at a glance how many days are left for Diwali, Holi or the next big Hindu festival. A large live timer counts down the days, hours, minutes and seconds, you can switch to any other festival, and below it is a list of all the major Hindu festivals in the next 12 months with date, weekday and days left.

How the countdown works

• Live countdown: days, hours, minutes and seconds to the next big festival, updating every second.
• Pick another festival: switch from Diwali to Holi, Raksha Bandhan, Janmashtami or any other festival in the list.
• 12-month list: the major Hindu festivals coming up, each with its date, weekday and the number of days left.
• Always current: the list moves forward on its own every day; once a festival passes, the next one takes its place.

Dates are calculated from the panchang for India (Delhi). Most of India keeps the same date, but occasionally a regional panchang or another city can differ by a day, and abroad — especially in far-off time zones such as the Americas — the local date can be a day apart from India’s. For the exact puja muhurat, check your local panchang or priest.

Why festival dates change every year

The English calendar follows the Sun, but most Hindu festivals are fixed by a lunar month and tithi — Diwali on the Amavasya of Kartik, Holi on the Purnima of Phalguna. Twelve lunar months add up to about 354 days, roughly 11 days short of the solar year, so a festival comes about 11 days earlier the following year. To stop the gap from growing, an extra month (adhik maas) is added roughly every 32–33 months, and festivals after it arrive about 18–19 days later. The result is that each festival moves within a window of about a month but stays in its season: Diwali always in October–November, Holi in February–March.

A few festivals are solar. Makar Sankranti marks the Sun’s entry into sidereal Capricorn, so it falls on 14 or 15 January almost every year.

The tithi is not always read at sunrise either. Diwali’s Lakshmi puja needs Amavasya in pradosh kaal (evening), Janmashtami needs Ashtami at midnight, Ganesh Chaturthi needs Chaturthi at midday, Mahashivratri needs Chaturdashi at night, and Holika Dahan is done in the evening on Purnima, avoiding Bhadra. That is why calendars sometimes disagree on a date.

Major festivals and their tithis

Month names follow the purnimanta calendar used in north India. In the amanta calendar (Gujarat, Maharashtra, south India) the Krishna paksha festivals carry the previous month’s name, but the day is the same. See the tool for this year’s exact dates.

Festival	Tithi (purnimanta)	Usually falls in
Makar Sankranti	Sun enters Capricorn (solar)	14–15 January
Vasant Panchami	Magha Shukla Panchami	January–February
Mahashivratri	Phalguna Krishna Chaturdashi	February–March
Holika Dahan / Holi	Phalguna Purnima; colours the next day	February–March
Ram Navami	Chaitra Shukla Navami	March–April
Raksha Bandhan	Shravan Purnima	July–August
Janmashtami	Bhadrapada Krishna Ashtami	August–September
Ganesh Chaturthi	Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturthi	August–September
Sharad Navratri	Ashwin Shukla Pratipada to Navami	September–October
Dussehra	Ashwin Shukla Dashami	September–October
Diwali	Kartik Amavasya	October–November
Bhai Dooj	Kartik Shukla Dwitiya	October–November

For every month’s Ekadashi see Ekadashi dates, and for all fasts the vrat calendar.

Preparing by days left

A month or more: plan with family, book travel early, set a simple budget, and begin the big pre-Diwali cleaning slowly.

About 15 days: list the puja samagri, diyas and wicks you need, and plan a little daan — clothes, sweets or grain for those in need. For Navratri, read up on the fasting rules and ghatasthapana.

One week: decide decorations, rangoli and prasad. Tell children the festival’s story — Prahlad and Holika for Holi, Shri Ram’s victory for Dussehra, his return to Ayodhya and Lakshmi puja for Diwali. Choose safe, natural colours for Holi.

One to three days: read the puja vidhi once — for Diwali see Diwali Lakshmi puja vidhi — and check your city’s muhurat in the daily panchang. If you are fasting, eat light, sattvic food the day before.

On the day: bathe, light a lamp at the home shrine, do puja with the family, seek the elders’ blessings and give what you can. Call relatives who live far away — togetherness is the heart of every festival.

Myths and facts

• “Add 365 days to last year’s date.” The lunar year is about 354 days and adhik maas intervenes, so this rarely works.
• “If two calendars differ, one is wrong.” Many festivals depend on the tithi at a specific time of day, which shifts with location, so both can be right for their place.
• “Makar Sankranti moves like other festivals.” It is solar, so it stays on 14 or 15 January.

Frequently asked questions