Diwali 2026 and Ganesh Chaturthi: why Australian dates can differ from India’s

The festival season has a rhythm every Indian-Australian household knows: Ganesha arrives in September and the diyas come out in November. The dates are less settled than the rhythm, because Australia sits hours ahead of India.

Here is what the panchang says about the dates this year.

First, pin down the dates

Australia’s festival dates can sit a day away from India’s, and 2026 is a textbook case. Hindu festivals follow tithis, lunar phases that begin and end at the same absolute moment worldwide but fall at different local times once you cross time zones. A tithi that covers midday in Mumbai may cover the following morning in Sydney, and the observance day shifts with it.

Ganesh Chaturthi showed how fine the margins are. In India the festival fell on Monday 14 September 2026. The chaturthi tithi began at 11:36am on the 14th and ran to 12:14pm on the 15th, eastern Australian time. Ganesh Chaturthi is observed on the day the chaturthi tithi covers the midday puja window, and with the tithi ending around midday on the Tuesday in eastern Australia, the choice between the two days came down to minutes.

Diwali falls on Sunday 8 November 2026 in India. The Hindu Council of Australia’s website points vendors to Deepavali stall bookings, but no 2026 fair dates had been published by late September.