Durga Puja 2026 runs from Friday, October 16 (Maha Shashthi) through Tuesday, October 20 (Vijaya Dashami), as observed in Kolkata, India. If you're celebrating from the USA, UK, Canada, or Australia, here are the exact ritual times converted to your local time zone — including the precise 48-minute Sandhi Puja window, the most time-sensitive moment of the entire festival.
Sandhi Puja marks the precise junction of Ashtami and Navami tithis — traditionally the most powerful moment of Durga Puja, when the Goddess is believed to have taken the form of Chamunda. Exact timing matters more here than for any other ritual.
Durga Puja is Bengal's largest religious and cultural festival, commemorating the goddess Durga's victory over the buffalo demon Mahishasura. Celebrated over five main days from Shashthi to Vijaya Dashami, it was recognized by UNESCO in 2021 as an "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity." For the Bengali diaspora, Durga Puja is often the year's biggest gathering — community pujas run by Bengali associations in most major US, UK, Canadian, and Australian cities recreate the full five-day ritual calendar, frequently on the nearest weekend for practical reasons, though the traditional dates and tithi-based timings remain as listed above.
Durga Puja 2026 runs from Maha Shashthi on Friday, October 16 through Vijaya Dashami on Tuesday, October 20, all dates as observed in Kolkata (India Standard Time).
Sandhi Puja's peak moment (Balidan) at 7:50 AM IST on October 19 falls at 10:20 PM EDT and 7:20 PM PDT on Sunday, October 18 (US East Coast is a full calendar day behind due to the time difference).
Sandhi Puja's peak moment (7:50 AM IST, October 19) falls at 3:20 AM BST on Monday, October 19 in the UK.
Different panjika publishers occasionally use slightly different traditional calculation methods, which can shift exact tithi transition times by a few hours — enough to occasionally affect which calendar day a ritual falls on. This page uses times verified against a published Bengali panjika.
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