Diwali 2027 falls on 29 October, ten days earlier than 2026, and the Cricket World Cup runs right through it. Here is every confirmed 2027 date, what is still unannounced, and how to plan around it.
01Diwali 2027 falls on Friday 29 October, ten days earlier than Diwali 2026 on 8 November, according to the DoPT 2027 holiday list.
02The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027 runs from 2 October to 21 November, with India v Pakistan on Sunday 10 October, the day after Dussehra.
03IPL 2027 dates, Big Billion Days and Great Indian Festival 2027 dates, wedding muhurats and both Eids are not yet confirmed as of 11 November 2026.
04PingTalks estimates that the 2027 marketplace festive sales will open between 29 September and 2 October, based on the 27 to 30 day gap before Diwali in 2025 and 2026.
Diwali 2027 falls on Friday 29 October, ten days earlier than Diwali 2026, and the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup runs right through it, from 2 October to 21 November 2027. If your festive plan copies this year’s dates, it will be late by a week and fighting cricket for attention.
This Indian marketing calendar 2027 lists only dates that are confirmed today: the Government of India’s gazetted and restricted holidays, the CBSE board exam timetable and the ICC fixture list. Where a date is not announced, we say so.
Diwali 2027 is on Friday 29 October, per the Department of Personnel and Training’s 2027 holiday list (O.M. dated 16 July 2026). That is ten calendar days earlier than 8 November 2026, so every festive milestone, from creative lock to the first sale banner, moves up by roughly ten days.
The week is tight. Dhanteras lands on Wednesday 27 October, Naraka Chaturdasi on Thursday 28, Diwali on Friday 29, Govardhan Puja on Saturday 30 and Bhai Dooj on Sunday 31. Chhath Puja follows on Thursday 4 November. For quick commerce and gifting brands, that is one continuous five-day peak with a weekend at the end.
We compared the DoPT gazetted and restricted lists with two festival calendars. Where they disagree, we use the DoPT date. Regional calendars can shift a festival by a day, so check your state list before booking media.
| Date (2027) | Moment | Who should care |
|---|---|---|
| Thu 14 Jan / Fri 15 Jan | Makar Sankranti, Pongal | FMCG, sweets, regional brands in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Punjab |
| Tue 26 Jan | Republic Day | Republic Day sales, electronics, fashion |
| Thu 11 Feb | Vasant Panchami | Education, apparel (yellow), North India |
| Tue 16 Feb to Fri 9 Apr | CBSE board exams (Class 10 ends 9 Mar) | EdTech, stationery, food delivery; family media habits shift |
| Wed 10 Mar | Eid ul-Fitr (moon-dependent) | Fashion, food, gifting, travel |
| Mon 22 Mar / Tue 23 Mar | Holika Dahan, Holi | Beverages, colours, quick commerce |
| Wed 7 Apr | Ugadi, Gudi Padwa, Chaitra Navratri begins | Auto, gold, property, regional launches |
| Sun 9 May | Akshaya Tritiya (festival calendars) | Jewellery, gold, BFSI |
| Mon 17 May | Eid ul-Adha (moon-dependent) | Food, travel |
| Sun 15 Aug / Tue 17 Aug | Independence Day, Raksha Bandhan | Gifting, sweets, D2C freedom sales |
| Wed 25 Aug | Janmashtami | FMCG, dairy, kids |
| Sat 4 Sep / Sun 12 Sep | Ganesh Chaturthi, Onam | Maharashtra and Kerala regional media |
| Thu 30 Sep | Sharad Navratri begins (some calendars say 1 Oct) | Fashion, auto, white goods |
| Sat 2 Oct | Gandhi Jayanti; Cricket World Cup starts | Everyone with a festive budget |
| Sat 9 Oct | Dussehra | Auto, property, electronics |
| Mon 18 Oct | Karva Chauth | Jewellery, beauty, fashion |
| Wed 27 Oct to Sun 31 Oct | Dhanteras to Bhai Dooj | Gold, electronics, gifting, quick commerce |
| Thu 4 Nov | Chhath Puja | Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern UP; travel |
| Sun 21 Nov | Cricket World Cup final, Johannesburg | Sponsors, OTT, food delivery |
| Sat 25 Dec | Christmas | Bakeries, gifting, year-end sales |
The holiday weekdays matter for travel, OTT and food delivery. Good Friday on 26 March, Mahavir Jayanti on Monday 19 April and Eid ul-Adha on Monday 17 May each give a three-day weekend. Five gazetted holiday dates fall on a weekend, including Independence Day and Christmas, with no substitute day off for central offices.
Four big ones are still open as of 11 November 2026: the IPL 2027 schedule, the Flipkart Big Billion Days and Amazon Great Indian Festival dates, wedding muhurat dates for the 2027 season, and both Eids, which depend on moon sighting. Treat any exact date for these as a guess until the organiser announces it.
On IPL, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia told PTI in June 2026 that the board wants to start by 10 March and finish by 15 May, with about 74 matches. That is a goal, not a fixture list.
Weddings are the other gap. The Confederation of All India Traders’ secretary general Praveen Khandelwal put the 1 November to 14 December 2025 season at about 46 lakh weddings and ₹6.5 lakh crore of spending. No 2027 estimate or official muhurat list exists yet, and panchangs differ by region.
Watch out: many “2027 calendar” pages copy dates from one panchang. We found sources disagreeing on Makar Sankranti (14 or 15 January), Sharad Navratri (30 September or 1 October) and Guru Nanak Jayanti (13 or 14 November). Use the DoPT date for national plans and your state list for regional ones.
Our estimate: the big marketplace sales will likely open in the last days of September 2027, close to Navratri on 30 September. That is a PingTalks projection from the last two years, not an announcement, and Flipkart and Amazon have not said anything about 2027.
Here is the working. In 2025, Big Billion Days and the Great Indian Festival both opened on 23 September, timed to the day after the GST rate changes, which was 27 days before Diwali on 20 October. In 2026, Big Billion Days opened on 9 October with early access on 8 October, 30 days before Diwali on 8 November. Apply the same 27 to 30 day gap to 29 October 2027 and you get a start between 29 September and 2 October.
That lands on the World Cup’s first weekend and Navratri. If you sell on marketplaces, your stock, listings and ad creatives need to be ready by mid-September, not early October as in 2026.
March 2027 stacks four events in four weeks: Eid ul-Fitr on 10 March, Holi on 22 and 23 March, the tentative IPL opening around 10 March and CBSE board exams running from 16 February. Brands that want IPL reach and festive sales at the same time will pay for both in the same weeks.
The exams matter more than most media plans admit. News On AIR reported that over 26.5 lakh Class 10 and 19.8 lakh Class 12 students will sit CBSE papers, with Class 12 running to 9 April. EdTech and food delivery should lean in. Travel brands should push Holi and Good Friday packages to families without board exams, or wait for the April school break.
It turns the festive season into a cricket season. India play Australia in Cape Town on Thursday 7 October, Pakistan in Johannesburg on Sunday 10 October, the day after Dussehra, then Afghanistan on 14 October, a qualifier on 17 October and Zimbabwe on 24 October. The semi-finals fall on 17 and 18 November and the final on 21 November.
South Africa is three and a half hours behind IST, so games are likely to land in the Indian afternoon and evening, the same slots festive TV and connected TV buyers fight over. ICC chairman Jay Shah called the schedule release and ticket ballot milestones when the ICC announced fixtures on 1 October 2026. For advertisers, India v Pakistan on 10 October is likely to be the costliest Sunday of the festive season. Our view is that most SMBs should not buy into the match itself. Run search and Meta prospecting before it, then retarget the next morning, when attention returns to shopping.
In 2027, the festive season and the cricket season are the same six weeks. Plan for both or lose to someone who did.
Take a D2C brand with ₹12 lakh of annual paid media. If it puts 40% (₹4.8 lakh) into the 46 days from 20 September to 4 November 2027, it spends about ₹10,400 a day in that window and about ₹2,260 a day for the other 319 days. That is a 4.6x daily step-up. Nearly five times the spend needs fresh creative, so brief three or four new ad sets per channel for that window. Our Meta Ads guide and Google Ads guide cover the setup.
No. The strongest case against a packed calendar is cost. Festive and cricket weeks pull in the biggest spenders, so a small brand often buys the same reach at a worse price. Digital already takes 64% of Indian ad spend, as our India ad spend 2026 breakdown showed, and much of it chases the same peaks.
B2B, SaaS and services brands can skip most of this table. Our advice is to push in the weeks after Diwali, when consumer brands pull back and buyers return to their desks. A good calendar tells you when to stay out. And because lunar dates and moon-sighted Eids can move by a day, never hard-code a launch to a single regional date.
Build your 2027 plan around three blocks, not thirty festivals: March (IPL, Eid, Holi, exams), August (Independence Day and Raksha Bandhan) and the 30 September to 4 November festive and World Cup run. Lock creative and influencer contracts by August. Pick two regional festivals that match your customers and ignore the rest. If you sell B2B, plan your push for mid-November.
Festive creative, marketplace listings and creator contracts should be signed by then if the sales open near Navratri on 30 September.
Diwali 2027 is on Friday 29 October, per the Government of India’s 2027 gazetted holiday list. Dhanteras is on 27 October and Bhai Dooj on 31 October.
IPL 2027 dates are not officially announced. BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia said in June 2026 that the board aims to start by 10 March and finish by 15 May with about 74 matches.
Flipkart and Amazon have not announced 2027 dates. Based on the last two years, PingTalks expects the sales to open around 29 September to 2 October 2027, close to Navratri, but this is an estimate.
The ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027 runs from 2 October to 21 November 2027 in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. India play Australia on 7 October and Pakistan on 10 October.
CBSE Class 10 and 12 exams start on 16 February 2027. Class 10 ends on 9 March and Class 12 ends on 9 April 2027.
Digital Evangelist and Entrepreneur at Clickseek Digital. A results-oriented marketing leader with an 18+ year track record driving transformative growth for diverse global businesses. Expert in performance marketing, demand generation, customer acquisition, strategic partnerships, and market expansion within B2B SaaS, Consumer-Tech, Fintech, Travel/Hospitality, and CRM/ITES Solutions sectors. IIM alumnus with a strong analytical background and a string of accolades, including "Top 50 Most Influential E-Commerce Professional of India" and "Top 100 Digital Marketer of India."
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