10 Festivals in India You Should Plan Your Trip Around

What better than starting the list of festivals in India with Durga Puja! Though it is celebrated all across the country, the celebration in West Bengal has a different zeal and enthusiasm altogether! During the festival, you will see Goddess Durga is worshipped on a mass scale, with a fare of stunning puja pandals.

The celebration of Durga Puja is so extravagant that you can hardly find any locality in West Bengal without community pandals. How to best enjoy the puja? Go for pandal hopping or sit in a community puja pandal and enjoy the traditions! Whatever you plan to do, book a flight to Kolkata or Bagdogra, (only airports in West Bengal) priorly!

This festival of colours, joy, and enthusiasm is celebrated in every state. But no place can beat the vibrant celebrations at Mathura and Vrindavan. In case you are wondering how to reach, take a flight to Delhi and then a road trip!

Lathmar Holi, Phoolon Wali Holi, and laddoo Holi are just some of the bizarre yet fun-filled holy celebrations that draw tourists from far and wide. Next time you plan to visit India, book a vacation in March, around the Holi! We promise, both the memories and the pictures of the trip will be colourful.

If you are planning a trip and taking a flight to Mumbai, Pune or any other city of Maharashtra, plan around Ganesh Chaturthi. Because this festival almost goes synonymous with Maharashtra. The festival of the Lord is celebrated in August for 8-10 days. Honestly, Ganesh Chaturthi week is nothing less than a gigantic fare!

If you are in Maharashtra during the time of this festival, you can see idols of the Lord are worshipped in the pandals for 8-10 days. On the last day, there will be large parades in the streets and the idol will be immersed in the river or sea, which is called Ganesh Visarjan. And pull up your socks during the visarjan, because you will be dancing the whole time!

Onam is to Kerala what Ganesh Chaturthi is to Maharashtra; they cannot be separated! The festival is celebrated for 10 days, between August and September. So, you can plan a long trip! Before you ask, Onam is all about folk songs, decorating elephants and boats with flowers, snake boat races, traditional dance, and folk performances like Kumatti kali and Pulikali.

If you are looking to get an offbeat experience of festivals of India 2021, Onam is just the right festival for you. If you have made up your mind already, here’s what you gotta do. Book a flight to Cochin, Trivandrum, Kozhikode and Kannur way before the festival along with the accommodations!

You can also call Gujarat the festival state of India because it celebrates more than 200 festivals in a year. And among all of them, the International Kite Festival is considered one of the most popular and engaging regional festivals of India. If you visit the state during the festival, you will see the skies filled with thousands of kites bashing into each other in the kite flying competition.

Before you take a flight to Ahmedabad, Surat or any other Gujarat city and start flying the kites, here’s something you may want to know. The festival marks the upcoming harvest season, which is called Makar Sankranti.

If you board a flight to Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad or any other city in Jharkhand in October or November, you can take part in Chhath Puja. And here’s why we suggest it. The festival is considered to be one of the most eco-friendly religious festivals celebrated in India.

The people of the state wear colourful and vibrant clothes and gather by the rivers or their local water bodies to celebrate this auspicious occasion. They light diyas and lamps and sing folk songs to worship the river Ganga or Chhath Maiya. Witnessing this eco-friendly festival will really take you on a journey to experience the ethnic Indian culture.

Jaisalmer Desert Festival, Rajasthan The list of festivals of India will lose its charm if we don’t include the Jaisalmer Desert Festival. It is a one-of-a-kind festival that is organised in February and that goes on for 4 days amidst the splendid dunes of the Thar desert in the beautiful city of Jaisalmer. The festival is all about showcasing and highlighting the traditional culture of the state that oozes with folk songs and dance forms.

People all over the country, as well as the world, take flights to Jaisalmer for this festival. You can too!

Next time you take a flight to Goa, don’t go for the beaches only. We say go for the Goa carnival! Because when it comes to celebrating carnivals, Goa holds a unique position in India and the whole of Asia as well. Goa Carnival is actually the only carnival celebrated in India, making it exclusive and one of a kind.

We almost forgot, the vibrant carnival is celebrated for 4 days and nights in the months of February or March.

Hornbill is not just a festival, it is an opportunity to have a closer look at the region of Nagaland. The 10-day festival is dedicated to the indigenous warrior tribes of Nagaland. We all know that the locals have preserved their unique heritage for many years. And celebrating this festival helps them encourage and promote the same! The region spends the festive days singing folk songs, dancing, drinking, and eating.

We are sure, the explorer in you is already intrigued. Let us help you with the planning. You will need to book a flight to Dimapur and from there you can go to your preferred location!

Why don’t we take a flight to Coimbatore (or Madurai or Tiruchirapalli) and end this festive trip with one of the important festivals of India, Pongal? It is a 4-day festival in Tamil Nadu that marks the harvest season of South India. The festival usually begins on 14th January. In case you are wondering, according to the Tamil solar calendar, the date marks the start of the month, which is called Tai. And it is dedicated to the Hindu Sun god, Surya.

Time for Trivia. The festival's name is derived from the Pongal dish, rice boiled in milk with jaggery. It is the India festival 2021 you simply cannot miss!

Travel and festivals can definitely go hand-in-hand. After all, it is during the festivals when you can experience the allure of any place in its truest form. So, put on your festive clothes and begin the fun!