Festival Holidays in India — The Ultimate Guide

The grandest festival in India, Diwali is a 5-day celebration of light over darkness, good over evil. Every home, street and temple is illuminated with clay lamps (diyas), electric lights and elaborate rangoli.

Best places: Varanasi (Dev Deepawali), Jaipur (royal fireworks), Amritsar (Golden Temple), Ayodhya (3 lakh diyas on the Saryu river).

Why tourists love it: The visual spectacle of millions of lights reflected on sacred rivers is genuinely once-in-a-lifetime.

Holi is the most exuberant festival in India — a two-day riot of coloured powders, water guns, folk music and sweets. It marks the end of winter and the arrival of spring.

Best places: Mathura & Vrindavan (oldest Holi traditions), Jaipur (Elephant Festival on Holi eve), Pushkar (international tourist hub), Barsana (Lath Mar Holi).

Travel tip: Wear old white clothes; organic gulal (powder) is safest for skin.

Durga Puja is West Bengal's most important festival — a 10-day worship of Goddess Durga, recognised by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021.

Best place: Kolkata (3,000+ pandals — temporary art installations — are erected across the city). Also celebrated in Dhanbad, Delhi and Mumbai.

Must-do: Walk the pandal-hopping route at night when thousands throng the city's streets.

Eid ul-Fitr marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan and is celebrated with morning prayers, feasting, new clothes, charity (Zakat) and family gatherings. India has one of the world's largest Muslim populations.

Best places: Hyderabad (Charminar area), Lucknow (Nawabi culture), Old Delhi (Jama Masjid), Kashmir, Mumbai.

Best experience: Pre-dawn Sehri at Old Delhi's historic lanes and the Eid morning prayer at Jama Masjid.

Navratri (Nine Nights) honours the nine forms of Goddess Durga with fasting, prayer and — most spectacularly — the Garba and Dandiya Raas dances performed night after night.

Best places: Ahmedabad and Vadodara (Gujarat's Garba — listed as UNESCO ICH), Mysore (Dasara procession is iconic), Kullu (Kullu Dussehra fair).

Travel tip: Book Gujarat accommodation 4–5 months ahead. Garba tickets sell out fast.

Ganesh Chaturthi is the birthday of Lord Ganesha, celebrated with elaborate clay idols installed in homes and public pandals, then immersed in the sea or rivers on the 11th day (Anant Chaturdashi) in grand processions.

Best places: Mumbai (most spectacular — 3,000+ public idols), Pune, Hyderabad, Goa.

Must-do: The Lalbaugcha Raja pandal in Mumbai — over 1.5 million visitors over the festival.

Onam is Kerala's biggest festival — a 10-day harvest celebration featuring the legendary Pookalam (flower carpets), the 26-oarsmen Vallam Kali snake boat races and the magnificent Onam Sadhya (29-course vegetarian feast).

Best places: Alleppey / Alappuzha (snake boat races), Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram for cultural events.

Best combo: Combine Onam with a Kerala houseboat stay on the backwaters.

The Pushkar Camel Fair (Pushkar Mela) is one of the world's largest livestock fairs — with 50,000+ camels, horses and cattle — transforming the Rajasthan desert into a kaleidoscope of colour, music and culture.

Why go: Camel races, folk performances, turban-tying contests, Rajasthani food and the stunning full-moon puja at Pushkar Lake.

Stay option: Luxury desert camp with camel safari and bonfire evenings.

Baisakhi marks the Punjabi solar New Year and the wheat harvest. It is also one of the most significant Sikh festivals, commemorating the formation of the Khalsa Panth in 1699 at Anandpur Sahib.

Best places: Amritsar (Golden Temple celebrations are magnificent), Anandpur Sahib, Talwandi Sabo, Muktsar and throughout Punjab.

Experience: Bhangra and Giddha folk dances fill every village square. The Golden Temple glows all night.

Witness Dev Deepawali on the Ganga ghats in Varanasi (Nov 5, 2025) with 1 million diyas. Continue to Jaipur for royal haveli Diwali celebrations, fireworks over Amber Fort and bazaar shopping.

Includes: Luxury heritage hotels, private guide, boat ride on Ganga, airport transfers.

Experience Lath Mar Holi in Barsana, Phoolon wali Holi at Banke Bihari Temple, the grand Holi celebration in Vrindavan and the evening aarti ceremony at Yamuna River with live folk music.

Includes: Boutique hotel, Holi colour kit, cultural guide, Agra & Taj Mahal day trip.

Led by an expert art and culture guide, this tour covers Kolkata's most celebrated pandals, the immersion (bisarjan) procession, Bengali cuisine trails and the city's colonial heritage.

Includes: Central heritage hotel, pandal-hopping circuit guide, ferry on the Hooghly, all meals on festival days.