Navratri 2026: dates, 9 colours and Ghatasthapana time

Navratri 2026 calendar: all 9 days with goddess and colour

Here is the full day by day plan most North Indian families follow. The colour of the day is the popular Maharashtra and Gujarat tradition that is now followed widely in offices, colleges and garba nights across India and abroad.

Why Durga Ashtami 2026 has two dates

A tithi is a lunar day, the time the Moon takes to move 12 degrees ahead of the Sun. It can be shorter or longer than a calendar day. In October 2026 one tithi stretches across two sunrises, so Saptami and Ashtami do not sit neatly on one date each.

Calendars that use the tithi at sunrise in Delhi place Durga Ashtami on Monday 19 October. Calendars that follow Sandhi puja, the junction of Ashtami and Navami, mark the night of 18 October. Both are traditional readings of the same sky. Most families simply follow their own family purohit or local mandir.

• Following your local mandir? Use their date, since the community puja happens together.
• Doing kanya pujan at home? Many families pick the morning when Ashtami is running at sunrise.
• Living abroad? Your city clock can move the tithi to a different date. Check the city table on this page.

Ghatasthapana 2026: how the kalash is placed

Most families do Ghatasthapana in the morning hours after sunrise on Pratipada. Abhijit muhurat, around midday, is the traditional fallback if the morning is missed. You can see today's Abhijit time for your city on our shubh muhurat page.

1. Clean the puja corner and spread a red or yellow cloth on a low chowki.
2. Fill a wide clay pot with clean soil and sow jau (barley) seeds in it.
3. Fill a copper or clay kalash with water, add a coin, supari, akshat and a little gangajal.
4. Place five mango leaves around the mouth and set a coconut wrapped in red chunri on top.
5. Tie mauli around the kalash and draw a swastik with roli.
6. Light an akhand diya if your family keeps one for all nine days.
7. Offer flowers, read the Durga Saptashati or simple aarti, and keep the place tidy each day.

The nine forms of Durga in short

Navratri food: common vrat ingredients

Rules vary by family. Some keep a fruits only fast, some eat one meal a day, and many skip onion and garlic for all nine days.

• Kuttu (buckwheat) and singhara (water chestnut) atta
• Sabudana for khichdi and vada
• Samak rice (barnyard millet)
• Sendha namak instead of regular salt
• Potato, sweet potato, arbi and pumpkin
• Makhana, peanuts, fruits, milk and curd

How Navratri is celebrated across India

Navratri 2026 for Indians abroad

Garba nights in New Jersey, Toronto, London, Dubai and Sydney often fall on the nearest weekend rather than the exact tithi, because halls are booked in advance. For the home kalash, though, the tithi still decides the date. In the Americas, Pratipada begins on the morning of 10 October local time, so some families there place the kalash on 11 October morning and others follow their local mandir. The city table below shows exactly when Pratipada begins and ends in your own clock.

Sharad Navratri 2026 time in Indian cities

Ghatasthapana is done in the morning after sunrise while Pratipada runs. Below are sunrise, sunset and moonrise on Sunday, 11 October 2026 for major Indian cities, calculated from each city's latitude and longitude. All times are IST. East Indian cities see the sun and moon earlier, west Indian cities later, by up to about an hour.

Sharad Navratri 2026 time in the USA, Canada, UK, UAE and Australia

For families abroad, the tithi starts and ends at the same instant everywhere, but your clock shows it at a different hour and sometimes on a different date. Here is Shukla Pratipada converted to each city's local time, with daylight saving applied, plus sunrise, sunset and moonrise on Sunday, 11 October 2026 in that city.

How to read this table

1. Find your city, or the nearest one in the same time zone.
2. If the tithi covers your morning on Sunday, 11 October 2026, you observe on the same date as India.
3. If it does not, follow your local mandir, which will decide using the same rule.

Open your city's full daily panchang, choghadiya and Rahu kaal from the panchang page.

How we calculate these dates and times

• The festival date is the India observance date published in standard Delhi calendars for 2026.
• The tithi window (Sat 10 Oct, 9:20 PM to Sun 11 Oct, 9:32 PM IST) is calculated from the real positions of the Sun and Moon.
• Sunrise, sunset and moonrise are calculated for each city's coordinates, on a flat horizon.
• Local times use each city's official time zone, including daylight saving.

Frequently asked questions about Sharad Navratri 2026