Holika Dahan: 2026 and 2027 dates by city

Phalguna Purnima bonfire at dusk, never lit in Bhadra; eve of Holi.

Holika Dahan is the bonfire on the full Moon of Phalguna, the evening before Holi. It recalls the boy Prahlada, whose devotion to Vishnu protected him in the fire, while his aunt Holika, who tried to burn him, perished. The fire stands for the victory of faith over arrogance.

Wood and cow-dung cakes are gathered for days. At dusk families walk around the pyre, tie a thread around it, offer coconut, new grain and sweets, and the fire is lit at the chosen time. The local panchang weighs Pradosh and Bhadra together; the table shows the Bhadra interval when it is relevant.

How the date is set

Purnima (full moon), shukla paksha (waxing Moon), in the month of Phalguna by the amanta calendar (the month ends at the new moon). It is kept on the day when the tithi holds the pradosh kala, the first three muhurats after sunset.

Dates in 2026 and 2027

The local date in each city; under it, the time of the part of the day the rule looks at, in local time.

In 2026 Delhi keeps it on 3 March; a day apart from that: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Lviv, Minsk, Riga, Tbilisi, Chișinău, Berlin, Warsaw, Prague, London, New York, Tel Aviv, Dubai, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Toronto, Los Angeles, Chicago, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Istanbul, São Paulo, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Lisbon.

In 2027 Delhi keeps it on 21 March; a day apart from that: Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney.

Smarta rules as published by Drik Panchang. ISKCON and regional calendars can name another day. The time shown is the part of the day the rule looks at, not a muhurat for a particular puja.

How to read the table

Each row is a city from our panchang list, and the date is the local civil date on which Holika Dahan is kept there by its rule. Under the date is the time of the part of the day that rule looks at, in the city's own local time: for example the pradosh kala, the evening after sunset, or the nishita around midnight. A time past midnight carries (+1). Where the rule names no part of the day, such as a solar ingress or a festival tied to another festival, only the date is given. The city's name opens its panchang for today.

Why the date can differ between cities

A tithi begins and ends at the same moment everywhere, but sunrise, noon and evening come at different local times. If the tithi ends shortly before the evening in one city and shortly after it in another, the two cities keep the festival on different dates. That is why a single date for the whole world is wrong for some places, and why this page gives the date city by city. The difference is almost always one day.

Which calendar this follows

These are the Smarta dates, by the decision rules of the Dharmasindhu and Nirnayasindhu as Drik Panchang publishes them; every city in the table was compared with Drik Panchang's calendar for that city. ISKCON keeps some days, Janmashtami among them, by the Vaishnava rule, and regional calendars can name another day. If your family or temple follows a particular calendar, follow it.

Questions

See also

• Delhi
• Hindu festivals 2026–2027
• Maha Shivaratri
• Holi

Positions and tables: sidereal zodiac, Lahiri ayanamsha — the same as professional Jyotish astrologers use, and the same calculation as the charts in JyotiSoft. Updated 2026-10-17.