When Is Navratri Festival? Navratri 2026 Dates, Today’s Day and the Last Day

There is a particular kind of quiet excitement that settles over an Indian home in the weeks before Navratri. The brass kalash is taken down and polished. Someone remembers that the barley seeds have to be soaked. The garba playlist starts doing the rounds on the family WhatsApp group. And somewhere in all of it, the same question comes up in every house, every single year: when exactly is Navratri this time?

If you are looking for a clear, date-wise answer for 2026 — including which day of Navratri is running today and when the last day falls — this guide has everything in one place.

When Is Navratri Festival in 2026?

Shardiya Navratri (Sharan Navaratri) 2026 — the big autumn Navratri that most people mean when they simply say “Navratri” — begins on Sunday, 11 October 2026 and concludes on Monday, 19 October 2026.

The festival opens with Ghatasthapana, the ceremonial installation of the kalash, performed on the morning of 11 October. In Delhi and most of north India the auspicious window falls roughly between 6:20 AM and 10:15 AM, with the Abhijit Muhurat around 11:44 AM to 12:31 PM available as an alternative. Muhurat timings shift by a few minutes from city to city because they are calculated from local sunrise, so it is always worth confirming the exact window for your own location before you begin.

Navratri dates change every year because the festival follows the Hindu lunar calendar, not the Gregorian one. Navratri always begins on Pratipada — the first tithi of the bright fortnight of the month of Ashwin — which lands anywhere between late September and mid-October depending on the year.

Which Day Is Today in Navratri?

As of today, 18 September 2026, Navratri has not yet begun. Ghatasthapana is 23 days away, on 11 October 2026. This is the preparation stretch — the fortnight when households finish their cleaning, book their pandits, order puja samagri and settle the fasting plan for the family.

Once the festival starts, working out which day of Navratri is running is simple arithmetic. Count 11 October as Day 1 and move forward. So 14 October is Day 4, 17 October is Day 7, and so on. The table below gives you the full mapping, so you never have to count on your fingers.

All Navratri Days 2026: The Complete Day-Wise Calendar

What Navratri Is Today: Why the Calendar Date Is Not Always the Whole Story

Most families follow the straightforward calendar count above, and for everyday purposes that is perfectly correct. But if you have ever seen two relatives argue about whether today is Saptami or Ashtami, here is why.

Hindu days are measured in tithis, not 24-hour blocks. A tithi is the time the Moon takes to move 12 degrees ahead of the Sun, and it can run anywhere from about 19 to 26 hours. That means a tithi rarely starts at midnight — it can begin at 3 PM one afternoon and end at 11 AM the next.

The general rule is that the tithi in effect at sunrise gives the day its name. Occasionally a tithi is so short that it starts and ends between two sunrises, or so long that it covers two sunrises. When that happens, calendars merge or repeat a day, and different regional panchangs make slightly different calls. For 2026, the nine days run cleanly from Pratipada to Navami with no tithi skipped, which is why almost every panchang agrees on the 11–19 October window.

If you want the exact tithi running at any moment during the festival, check a panchang calculated for your own city, or ask the pandit conducting your puja.

When Is Navratri Last Day 2026?

The last day of Navratri 2026 is Monday, 19 October 2026 — Maha Navami, the day of Maa Siddhidatri. This is when most households perform the concluding rituals of the nine days.

The final stretch of the festival carries the heaviest ritual weight:

•      Durga Ashtami — Sunday, 18 October 2026. Widely observed with Kanya Pujan, where nine young girls are worshipped as living embodiments of the nine goddesses, fed a festive meal and sent home with gifts.

•      Maha Navami — Monday, 19 October 2026. The ninth and final day. Many families perform the havan on this day, offer the last bhog, and break their nine-day fast after the concluding aarti.

•      Vijayadashami / Dussehra — Tuesday, 20 October 2026. Technically the day after Navratri ends, celebrating Durga’s victory over Mahishasura and Rama’s victory over Ravana. In Bengal it is the day of Durga visarjan and sindoor khela.

A small note: some families observe Kanya Pujan on Navami rather than Ashtami, and a few regional traditions place Ashtami and Navami slightly differently. Both practices are valid. Follow whatever your family has always done, or consult your family’s panchang.

Navratri Comes Four Times a Year, Not Once

Most people only count the autumn one, but the Hindu calendar actually marks four Navratris:

•      Chaitra Navratri — celebrated in March or April, and in 2026 it ran from 19 to 27 March, concluding with Ram Navami on 27 March. It coincides with Gudi Padwa and Ugadi, marking the start of the Hindu new year in several regions.

•      Shardiya Navratri (Sharan Navaratri) — the autumn festival, 11 to 19 October in 2026. This is the grandest and most widely celebrated of the four.

•      Magha Gupt Navratri — observed in January or February.

•      Ashadha Gupt Navratri — observed in June or July.

The two Gupt Navratris are called “gupt”, meaning hidden, because they are observed quietly and privately, mostly by devotees pursuing specific spiritual disciplines, rather than with public festivities.

Navratri is celebrated differently across India. In Tamil Nadu, families decorate their homes by arranging dolls in stepped displays, a tradition known as Golu. In Karnataka, Navratri culminates in the grand Dussehra celebrations of Mysore, and many households display Pattada Bombe, traditional wooden dolls that are passed down through generations.

Planning Your Navratri 2026

With three weeks still to go, this is the ideal time to get the practical things in order. Fix your Ghatasthapana muhurat for your city. Arrange your kalash, mango leaves, coconut, red cloth and barley seeds. Decide who in the family is fasting and how strictly. And if you are planning a puja at home, book your pandit early — the 11 to 20 October window is the busiest fortnight of the year for pandits across India, and good ones are spoken for weeks in advance.

At poojas.in, you can book verified pandits for Ghatasthapana, Durga Puja, Kanya Pujan and the Navami havan, with complete samagri arranged and delivered, so all you have to do on the day is show up with your devotion intact.