Durga Ashtami / Navami 2026

October 2026

Tuesday

Durga

Peak days of Durga Puja

Durga Ashtami / Navami Puja Timings

Durga Ashtami / Navami on Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Ashwin, Shukla Paksha, Navami

Begins: 10:52 AM, Oct 19 · Ends: 12:50 PM, Oct 20

Duration: 2 days

Today

About Durga Ashtami / Navami

Durga Ashtami and Navami are the peak days of Durga Puja, featuring Sandhi Puja — the precise twilight junction between the two tithis — and Kanya Pujan, the worship of young girls as embodiments of the Goddess.

Significance

The eighth and ninth days of Ashwin Navratri, the peak of Durga Puja. Ashtami honours the Goddess as Mahishasuramardini, slayer of the buffalo demon Mahishasura. The moment where Ashtami ends and Navami begins — the last 24 minutes of Ashtami and first 24 of Navami — is called Sandhi Kaal and is held to be the most sacred time of the entire festival.

How to Observe

Worship the Goddess with the full sixteen-step (Shodashopachara) puja and offer flowers, fruit and bhog
Perform Sandhi Puja at the Ashtami–Navami junction, offering 108 lamps and 108 lotuses; in many places the traditional sacrifice is done symbolically with a vegetable such as banana or pumpkin
Hold Kumari (Kanya) Puja — worship of young girls, about two to ten years old, as forms of Durga, with foot-washing, a meal of halwa, puri and chana, and gifts
Fast, or keep a sattvic diet, and attend the Pushpanjali offering at your local pandal or temple

Regional Variations

West Bengal, Assam & Odisha

Ashtami is the highlight of the five-day Durga Puja, with pandals, the sound of the dhak drums, and a crowded Sandhi Puja.

North India

Part of Navratri, with worship of Goddess Mahagauri on Ashtami and Kanya Pujan feasts on Ashtami.

Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana & Kerala

Navami is Ayudha Puja: tools, books, instruments and vehicles are cleaned and worshipped alongside Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati, and left untouched until Vijayadashami.

Related Festivals & Vrats

Shardiya Navratri Vijayadashami / Dussehra

Notes: Date and timings shown are computed for New Delhi, India using Swiss Ephemeris. Computed via the Udaya Tithi (tithi prevailing at sunrise) convention and the purnimanta month naming both already used by /api/panchang and vrat_engine.py's Janmashtami/Shraddha types. A tithi that never touches a sunrise (Kshaya) falls back to a midday-anchor scan instead of returning no date — see module docstring's Kshaya Tithi finding; one spanning two sunrises (Vriddhi) can still produce two consecutive dates, unresolved beyond the plain rule. Two occurrences returned per year — Ashtami and Navami are both real tithi dates, not a date range interpolated between them. RESOLVED Sprint 36c: re-checked against 5+ fresh sources for 2026 (rudraksha-ratna.com, oneworldnews.com, astrozindagi.in, drikpanchang.com's own Mahashtami page, prokerala.com's tithi window) — all converge on Ashtami observed Oct 19, Navami Oct 20, which is exactly what plain sunrise/Udaya Tithi already computes here; one lone outlier site (andaazfashion.com, Oct 18/19) contradicted both the majority and every source's own independently-reported tithi begin/end times, so treated as an error rather than a genuine second position. Sandhi Puja (the Ashtami/Navami junction ritual) still falls within the Ashtami calendar day (~10:27-11:15 AM per multiple 2026 sources) so doesn't change which civil day is "Ashtami". Sprint 19b's earlier "Oct 17/19 vs Oct 19/20" disagreement note is now stale — see SPRINT_LOG.md Sprint 36c. Always cross-check with your family priest for a personalised Muhurat.

Panchang for Durga Ashtami / Navami Day Choghadiya Muhurat

Frequently Asked Questions

Durga Ashtami / Navami 2026 mein kab hai?

Durga Ashtami / Navami 2026 mein Tuesday, 20 October ko hai (New Delhi ke panchang ke anusaar). Tithi: Ashwin, Shukla Paksha, Navami. Yeh tithi 10:52 AM, Oct 19 se 12:50 PM, Oct 20 tak rehti hai. Apne shehar ke hisaab se samay thoda alag ho sakta hai.

Durga Ashtami / Navami kab se kab tak hai?

Durga Ashtami / Navami 20 October se shuru hota hai. Avadhi: 2 days.

Why does this festival's date change every year on the Gregorian calendar?

Most Hindu festivals are set by the lunar Hindu calendar (a specific Tithi within a specific lunar month), not the solar Gregorian calendar used internationally. Since a lunar year runs roughly 11 days shorter than a solar year, the same Tithi lands on a different Gregorian date each year — this is normal and expected, not an error.