Hindu Festivals in October 2026

Friday · Pitrs / Goddess Durga

New-moon closing day of Pitru Paksha (the 16-day dark fortnight of ancestor remembrance) and the dawn-invocation that opens Devi Paksha leading to Durga Puja. Sons perform Tarpan at riverbanks — offering water, black sesame, and pinda to three generations of paternal and maternal ancestors. In Bengal, families wake before dawn to All India Radio's 1931 Birendra Krishna Bhadra rendition of Mahishasura Mardini, a 90-year unbroken ritual broadcast.

Monday · Maa Durga

Nine nights of Devi worship in autumn. Begins on Ashwin Shukla Pratipada. Each day honors one of the nine forms of Durga (Nava Durga).

Monday · Durga / Rama

Celebrates Rama's victory over Ravana and Durga's victory over Mahishasura. Effigies of Ravana, Meghnath, Kumbhakarna burned at sunset. Auspicious for new beginnings (Shastra puja, vidyarambh).

Monday · Goddess Durga

Five-day Bengali celebration of Goddess Durga's slaying of Mahishasura, peaking on Maha Ashtami of Sharada Navaratri. Artisans of Kumartuli sculpt clay murtis of ten-armed Durga flanked by Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha, and Kartikeya through the year. Sarbojanin (community) pandals across Kolkata transform neighbourhoods into open-air art galleries; Bonedi Bari (aristocratic household) pujas preserve 300-year-old family rites.

Monday · Murugan

Skanda Shashti, observed on the Shukla Shashti of the Tamil month Aippasi, commemorates the day Murugan (Skanda-Kartikeya) annihilated the asura Surapadma at Tiruchendur on the Tamil coast, restoring dharma to the devas. The six-day Soorasamharam festival at the Tiruchendur Arulmigu Subramanya Swamy Temple culminates in a dramatic re-enactment where the vel pierces Surapadma, who is transformed into the peacock vahana and rooster banner of the Lord. The vratam is widely observed in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia, and finds scriptural sanction in the Skanda Purana and the Tamil Kanda Puranam of Kachiyappa Sivacharya.

Thursday · Vishnu and Amla tree

Akshay Navami, also called Amla Navami or Kushmanda Navami, falls on the ninth day of the bright fortnight of Kartika and is observed as a day on which every action of dharma performed yields akshay or undiminishing merit through the entire treta yuga cycle. The Padma Purana and the Skanda Purana narrate that on this day the treta yuga began, the avatar of Krishna performed govardhan puja, and the sacred amla or Indian gooseberry tree, regarded as the dwelling place of Vishnu and Lakshmi, is to be worshipped with circumambulation and the offering of food. The most distinctive ritual of the day is the amla vriksha puja in which a satvic feast is prepared and consumed under the shade of an amla tree, with the first portion offered to the tree itself and to brahmanas seated nearby. The day also commemorates the appearance of goddess Kushmanda, the fourth form of the navadurga, who is said to have created the universe through her divine smile, and many devotees in Mathura, Vrindavan, and the Braj region undertake the eighty four kos parikrama of Braj beginning on Akshay Navami. Married women observe a special vrata for the long life and prosperity of their husbands and children, and donations of food, clothing, and gold made on this day are believed to multiply manifold in their merit.