Navratri Day by Day 2026 and 2027: Dates, Tithi, Goddess of Each Day and Colours

Navratri means “nine nights”, and each of the nine days is given to one form of the Goddess, the Navadurga. This page sets out, day by day, the civil date, the tithi that is in force at sunrise, and the form of the day for Sharad Navratri 2026 and Chaitra Navratri 2027. Every date and time was worked out with the same festival engine that produces the city tables on the Sharad Navratri page and the Chaitra Navratri page, not copied from a calendar. Each goddess has her own page in the Navadurga guide.

How the days are counted

The nine days follow the nine tithis of the bright half of the month, from Pratipada to Navami. A tithi is not a calendar day: it is a thirtieth part of the Moon’s cycle and lasts, by the clock, somewhere between nineteen and twenty-six hours. A civil day is given the tithi that is in force at sunrise. This is why a Navratri sometimes has eight days, sometimes nine and sometimes ten. When a tithi lasts through two sunrises, it repeats, and when one begins and ends between two sunrises, it is skipped. Calendars handle the repeated or skipped day in different ways, so where two days are given for one form, follow your family or temple.

The tables below are for New Delhi and Pune, which agree on every tithi and differ only by a few minutes of sunrise. Times are Indian Standard Time. For other cities the first day and the Ghatasthapana window are on the festival pages, and the any-city tool covers places that are not listed: work out the dates for any place.

Sharad Navratri 2026, day by day

Pratipada is in force at sunrise on the first day, so Ghatasthapana is done that morning. The window in New Delhi runs from 6:19 am to 6:53 am, and in Pune from 6:27 am to 6:58 am. The pot may be installed later in the morning on the same day, and many families take the Abhijit muhurat around midday if they miss the first window; ask your priest if you are unsure. See the Ghatasthapana guide.

The repeated day. Saptami begins before sunrise on Saturday 17 October 2026 and does not end until 8:28 am on Sunday 18 October 2026, so it holds at two sunrises. The nine tithis therefore take ten civil days. Some calendars give Kalaratri on both days; others give Kalaratri on the first and move Mahagauri to the second, because Ashtami begins at 8:28 am. The festival engine used on this site places Maha Ashtami on Monday 19 October 2026 in New Delhi and Pune, so we show Mahagauri on that day and Kalaratri on the first of the two Saptami days. If your temple does it another way, follow your temple. Pages for the two forms: Kalaratri and Mahagauri.

The tenth day. Dussehra (Vijayadashami) is on Tuesday 20 October 2026 in New Delhi and Pune, in the afternoon, because the tenth tithi begins at about 12:50 pm and the observance is set by the part of the afternoon in which it is in force (the Aparahna). The window is 1:14 pm to 3:30 pm in New Delhi and 1:29 pm to 3:48 pm in Pune. Durga Puja in Bengal marks Vijayadashami on Wednesday 21 October 2026 by its own count. See the Dussehra page and the Durga Puja page.

Chaitra Navratri 2027, day by day

Chaitra Navratri begins on Wednesday 7 April 2027, the same day as Ugadi and Gudi Padwa. The Ghatasthapana window in New Delhi runs from 6:05 am to 6:29 am, and in Pune from 6:24 am to 6:51 am. Every tithi from Pratipada to Navami is in force at one sunrise only, so the festival has nine civil days with no repeat and no gap. The ninth day, Thursday 15 April 2027, is also Ram Navami; see the Ram Navami page. Siddhidatri is therefore worshipped on the same day as the birth of Rama in this year. The Navadurga order of worship is kept in Chaitra Navratri in much of north India, and in other regions the festival is kept differently, for example with the spring festivals of Ugadi and Gudi Padwa.

Sharad Navratri 2027 begins on Thursday 30 September 2027 in New Delhi and Pune. The detail for that year is on the Sharad Navratri page.

The popular colours of the nine days in Maharashtra

In Maharashtra, and in Marathi communities elsewhere, a colour is announced for each day of Sharad Navratri, and women in offices, housing societies and families often wear it. This is a modern regional custom. It is not found in the Devi Mahatmya, the Puranas or the older ritual texts, and it is not a rule of worship. It is also not tied to the goddess of the day. The colour follows the weekday, so the colour of a given form changes from year to year: Shailaputri is orange in 2026 because the first day is a Sunday, and in another year she is another colour.

The scheme most often circulated assigns one colour to each weekday: Sunday orange, Monday white, Tuesday red, Wednesday royal blue, Thursday yellow, Friday green and Saturday grey. In a year with nine or ten days the last days repeat weekdays, and the lists published by newspapers and societies differ: some add peacock green and pink for the extra days and some repeat the earlier colours, which is why the table says “varies by list” for the eighth, ninth and tenth days of 2026. The lists have also changed over the years. If you are joining a group that follows a colour list, use the list that group sends you.

Other regions have their own habits. Many north Indian families wear red or yellow through the nine days, many Gujarati families wear the colourful chaniya choli of the garba nights, and in Bengal new clothes are worn for Durga Puja. None of these is a rule.

Which goddess on which day

The order used here is the one widely followed in north and west India, and the Devi Kavacha names the nine forms in the same order: Shailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayani, Kalaratri, Mahagauri and Siddhidatri. The forms are taken in order of the tithis. Each one has a page with the form, the story, and the offering customs, and each page links back to this one. The offerings are customs that differ by region, and so are the stories’ details.

For worship through the nine days, the Navratri daily puja guide gives a short order. For recitation, the Durga Chalisa, the Jai Ambe Gauri aarti and the Mahishasura Mardini Stotram are the three most often used, and the Devi Mahatmya is the great text of the festival.

A calm note: a regular small practice through the nine days is a full observance. If your family or temple counts the days differently from the tables, follow them.

Frequently asked questions