Plan your trip · Kolkata
What's on in Kolkata
Kolkata's calendar is built around Durga Puja, but the city celebrates something almost every month. These are the events worth planning a trip around.
Nothing dated is confirmed for Kolkata right now, so here is the year instead — the fixtures that come round annually, and what each one means for a visit.
The year in Kolkata
Kolkata packs most of its outdoor calendar into the cooler months; the pre-monsoon peak is hot enough that daytime processions are genuinely hard going. Broadly, Oct – Mar is when visiting is most comfortable here, and that is when the calendar is busiest — which also means accommodation is most expensive and books furthest ahead.
Most of these follow lunar calendars and move by weeks from year to year, so treat the windows below as the season rather than the date, and confirm the year’s dates before you book around one.
Signature to Kolkata
Durga Puja
🗓️ September–OctoberThe city rebuilt in bamboo and cloth for five days, judged pandal by pandal.
Planning: Go after 10pm when queues thin and the lighting is better.
Nationwide
Diwali
🗓️ October–NovemberThe biggest holiday of the year — lamps, sweets, fireworks and a week of visiting family. Cities are lit up and markets stay open late.
Holi
🗓️ MarchColoured powder and water, thrown at anyone within reach, mostly through the morning.
Navratri and Dussehra
🗓️ September–OctoberNine nights of fasting, music and dance, ending with Dussehra. What it looks like changes completely by region — garba in Gujarat, pandals in Bengal, processions in the south.
Eid al-Fitr
🗓️ shifts ~11 days earlier each yearThe end of Ramadan. The old quarters of Delhi, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Bhopal are at their best in the evenings through the preceding month, when food streets run past midnight.
Makar Sankranti and Pongal
🗓️ mid-JanuaryThe harvest turn, marked with kites in the west and north and four days of Pongal in Tamil Nadu.
Durga Puja (September or October)
Durga Puja in Kolkata was added to UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage in 2021. Thousands of community pujas build pandals, temporary halls of bamboo and cloth, and compete on themes, lighting and idols. The main days are Shashthi to Dashami, but pandals open from Mahalaya, about a week earlier. In 2026, Mahalaya falls on 10 October and the Puja runs from 17 to 21 October. On Dashami, married women play sindoor khela, and the idols are taken to the river for immersion. Queues at famous pandals can last hours in the evening. Late at night and early in the week are calmer.
Lakshmi Puja and Kali Puja (October to November)
Lakshmi Puja follows on the full moon after Dashami. Kali Puja falls on the new-moon night of Diwali, when Kalighat and Dakshineswar draw huge crowds. Jagaddhatri Puja, soon after, is celebrated most grandly in Chandannagar, north of the city.
Christmas and New Year (December)
Park Street is decorated with lights for Christmas and New Year's Eve, and the old restaurants and bakeries are packed. St Paul's Cathedral holds a midnight service on Christmas Eve.
Poush Sankranti and the Book Fair (January to February)
Mid-January is Poush Sankranti, when Bengali homes make pithe, rice cakes filled with coconut and date-palm jaggery. Pilgrims pass through the city on their way to the Gangasagar Mela on Sagar Island. The International Kolkata Book Fair usually runs from late January into early February at the Boimela Prangan in Salt Lake. The 2027 fair will be its 50th. Saraswati Puja, in January or February, fills schools and colleges.
Dol Jatra (March)
Holi is called Dol in Bengal. People throw coloured powder, known as abir, and sing in the morning.
Poila Baisakh (April)
The Bengali New Year falls on 14 or 15 April. Shops open new account books in a ritual called haal khata, and Kalighat is crowded from dawn.
Rath Yatra (June or July)
Chariot processions run through the city, and ISKCON's is the best known.
Dates for most festivals follow the lunar calendar, so check them before you book. See the best time to visit for the weather in each season.
Questions
Kolkata — FAQ
What is Mahalaya?
Mahalaya marks the start of Devi Paksha, the fortnight of the goddess, about a week before the main Durga Puja days. Many Bengalis wake before dawn to hear the radio recitation Mahishasura Mardini, and many pandals open to visitors from that day.
Can visitors watch sindoor khela?
Yes, at many community pandals on Dashami. It is a ritual for married women, who smear vermilion on the goddess and on each other. Watch from the side, and ask before you photograph anyone.
Where are Durga idols immersed in Kolkata?
At ghats along the Hooghly, including Babughat, in the days from Dashami onwards. Traffic around the river is diverted, and the ghats are crowded and noisy. Go with care, and follow police directions.
Is the Kolkata Book Fair worth visiting as a tourist?
Yes, if you like books or want to see the city at leisure. It is one of the busiest book fairs in the world, with hundreds of stalls, talks and food stands. Weekends are very crowded.