Sharad Navratri 2026 — Dates, Ghatasthapana Muhurat, Colours and Puja Vidhi

Sharad Navratri 2026 begins on Sunday, October 11, and runs to Vijayadashami on Tuesday, October 20. The most important of the year's Navratris, it opens on the Pratipada of the bright fortnight (Shukla Paksha) of the Ashwin month with Ghatasthapana (Kalash Sthapana), and unfolds across nine nights of worship of the nine forms of the Divine Mother — the Navdurga — culminating in Durga's victory over the buffalo-demon Mahishasura, celebrated on the tenth day as Dussehra.

It arrives the day after Pitru Paksha ends — the family first honours its ancestors, then turns, with a clear heart, to the Mother. Here is the verified Ghatasthapana muhurat, the nine days and their Devi and colours, the Maha Ashtami and Navami dates (with the tithi note), and the complete puja vidhi.

Sharad Navratri 2026 — Dates and Ghatasthapana Muhurat

Ghatasthapana should be done in the Pratipada, ideally in the morning muhurat, avoiding Rahu Kaal. Timings shift by your city's longitude — confirm the exact window for your city on the ShubhDivas Panchanga.

The Nine Days and the Nine Devi Forms

Each night of Navratri is dedicated to one form of the Divine Mother, and popularly to a colour worn in her honour:

The nine colours are a popular convention that shifts by the festival's starting weekday and by region — treat them as a joyful custom, not a scriptural rule. The Navdurga forms themselves are fixed.

Maha Ashtami, Maha Navami and Sandhi Puja — the Date Note

The two most important puja days after Ghatasthapana are Maha Ashtami (Durgashtami) and Maha Navami — and their dates need care in 2026, because the tithis overlap.

The Ashtami tithi runs from 08:27 AM on Oct 18 to 10:51 AM on Oct 19, so Ashtami is present at sunrise on October 19 — which is why DrikPanchang and most panchangs place Maha Ashtami on Monday, October 19, with Sandhi Puja (the sacred junction of Ashtami and Navami) around 10:27 AM – 11:15 AM on October 19. Per this reckoning, Maha Navami also falls on October 19, and Vijayadashami on October 20.

However, some regional and Bengali Durga Puja calendars mark Maha Ashtami on October 18 and Maha Navami on October 20. Follow your family's and community's panchang — but Vijayadashami / Dussehra is firmly October 20 across all traditions.

Ghatasthapana and Navratri Puja Vidhi

1. Ghatasthapana (Day 1). In the morning muhurat, sow barley seeds (jayanti/khetri) in a bed of clean soil in an earthen pot, and install a Kalash — a copper or clay pot filled with holy water, a coin, betel nut, and topped with mango leaves and a turmeric-smeared coconut wrapped in red cloth. The Goddess is invoked into the Kalash for the nine days.
2. Invoke Durga. Place an image or idol of Goddess Durga beside the Kalash, light an Akhand Jyoti (an unbroken lamp kept burning through the nine days, where family tradition permits), and take the sankalp of the vrat.
3. Daily worship. Each day, worship the Kalash and that day's Devi form with water, roli, akshata, flowers (red hibiscus is dear to Durga), fruit, and naivedya; recite the Durga Saptashati (Chandi Path) or the Durga Chalisa; and perform arati morning and evening.
4. The fast. Devotees keep a vrat through the nine days — some fully fasting, most on phalahara (fruit, milk, and vrat foods, no grains), avoiding onion, garlic, and tamasic food.
5. Barley shoots. The barley sprouts that rise over the nine days are read as an omen of the year's prosperity, and distributed as prasad after the festival.

Kanya Pujan (Kanjak) — Ashtami and Navami

The vrat is completed with Kanya Pujan (Kanjak) — the worship of young girls as living forms of the Goddess — performed on Ashtami (Oct 19) or Navami, by family custom. Nine young girls (below about age eleven), with one young boy representing Batuk Bhairav, are invited home, their feet washed, a tilak applied, and a thread tied; they are then fed the traditional puri, chana (kala chana), and halwa, and sent off with a small gift and blessings. Feeding and honouring the kanyas is held to bring the Mother's full grace to the household.

The Significance of Sharad Navratri

Navratri — "nine nights" — celebrates the victory of Goddess Durga over Mahishasura, the buffalo-demon whom no god or man could slay, and who fell at last to the combined Shakti of the Devi over nine nights of battle, her triumph sealed on the tenth day. More deeply, the nine nights are a spiritual ascent: the worship of Durga (the destroyer of negativity), Lakshmi (abundance), and Saraswati (wisdom) across three sets of three nights, by which the devotee sheds the inner demons of ego, greed, and ignorance and rises, on Vijayadashami, into victory. It is the most auspicious season for sadhana, new beginnings, and the invocation of Shakti — the divine feminine power that moves all creation.

Sharad Navratri also falls within Chaturmas, so while it is the festive heart of autumn, weddings and griha pravesh remain paused until Dev Uthani Ekadashi in late November — though Navratri and Dussehra themselves are prime days for purchases and new ventures (see our October 2026 auspicious dates).