Festivals
The Indian festival year
Festivals are the loudest, warmest moments of the Indian calendar — the days a home fills with light, food, colour and sound. This is how we score them.
An introduction
The days the house fills up
In our house a festival is not a background task. It is the reason the kitchen starts early, the floor is washed twice, and the music is chosen with the same care as the menu. Each festival has its own hour, its own colour, and its own sound — so we treat them the way we treat a service: by the time of day, and by the feeling the room should hold.
By the calendar
The festival year turns on the lunar calendar, so the dates move each year. We keep the 2026 dates here, plainly, so nothing catches a kitchen or a host by surprise.
By the sound
A festival has a texture. Holi is bright and unbuttoned; Diwali is warm and unhurried. The music we set behind each one changes with that texture.
By the table
Most festivals arrive with food attached — sweets, thalis, things cooked only once a year. Our recipes and our playlists are meant to sit at the same table.
The 2026 calendar
When each festival falls
The dates below are for 2026. A few festivals run across more than one day; where that matters, we have noted the surrounding days as well.
| Festival | 2026 date |
|---|---|
| Holi | Wednesday, 4 March 2026Holika Dahan: Tuesday, 3 March |
| Raksha Bandhan | Friday, 28 August 2026 |
| Ganesh Chaturthi | Monday, 14 September 2026 |
| Sharad Navratri | Sunday, 11 October 2026Dussehra / Vijayadashami: Tuesday, 20 October 2026 |
| Karva Chauth | Thursday, 29 October 2026 |
| Dhanteras | Friday, 6 November 2026 |
| Diwali / Lakshmi Puja | Sunday, 8 November 2026 |
| Govardhan Puja | Tuesday, 10 November 2026 |
| Bhai Dooj | 10–11 November 2026 |
The guides
One festival at a time
We are writing a guide for each festival as the year turns — the date, the meaning, and the music we would set behind it. Diwali is here now; the rest are on their way.
Sunday, 8 November
Diwali
The festival of lights: diyas, rangoli, sweets, and the warmest evening of the year. Dates, meaning, and the music we play for it.
Read the guide →
Sunday, 11 October
Navratri & Dussehra
Nine nights of the goddess, then the victory of good over darkness. The full season and its changing tempo.
Guide coming soon →
Thursday, 29 October
Karva Chauth
A quiet, tender evening of fasting and moonlight, kept mostly by married women and the households around them.
Read the guide →
Wednesday, 4 March
Holi
Colour, water, and the end of winter. The most unbuttoned day on the Indian calendar — and the music rises to meet it.
Read the guide →
Monday, 14 September
Ganesh Chaturthi
The elephant-headed remover of obstacles arrives, stays ten days, and leaves to a farewell the whole street joins.
Read the guide →
Friday, 28 August
Raksha Bandhan
Sisters tie a thread on a brother's wrist, and a promise is renewed. Small, familial, and full of sweets.
Guide coming soon →
Music for every festival
The sound of the occasion
We keep a festival music section in the catalogue — music chosen for the hour and the ritual rather than the genre. It is where our Diwali release lives, alongside the palettes for Holi, Navratri and the rest of the year.
A festival is also a table. For the food that goes with it — the sweets, the thalis, the dishes cooked only once a year — see our recipes, each one paired with the music we would play alongside it.