India's festivals and events

Most of India's headline festivals follow lunar or lunisolar calendars, so their Gregorian date moves by weeks each year: Holi, Diwali, Durga Puja, Ganesh Chaturthi and Ladakh's Hemis festival all fall this way. A smaller group is fixed to a solar or harvest calendar and lands in the same window every year, such as Onam in Kerala's month of Chingam (roughly August–September). For any lunar festival, we confirm the exact date on enquiry once the year's almanac is published rather than publish a date that could be wrong by the time you read this.

The two other events here, the Pushkar Camel Fair and Rann Utsav, sit in between: the fair follows the lunar Kartik calendar (typically October–November) but runs as a multi-day tourism event, and Rann Utsav is a Gujarat Tourism programme that spans a fixed winter season (broadly November to February) rather than a single date.

If you want to take part rather than watch, Holi is the obvious choice, but go with a plan: Mathura and Vrindavan's Lathmar and Banke Bihari celebrations are intense, and a guide who knows which lanes to avoid matters more here than anywhere else on this list.

If you would rather observe a spectacle from comfort, Diwali in Jaipur or Durga Puja pandal-hopping in Kolkata with a private car and guide are easier to enjoy without the crush.

Travellers combining a festival with a wider trip do best pairing Onam with a Kerala backwaters itinerary, the Pushkar fair with a Rajasthan circuit that already passes nearby, or Rann Utsav with a Gujarat and Kutch loop.