Diwali Holidays 2027: What Is Notified, and What Is Still a Guess

Diwali Holidays 2027: What Is Notified, and What Is Still a Guess

Diwali holidays 2027 are fixed on only one official list so far: the central government's, which makes Friday 29 October 2027 a gazetted holiday, with Naraka Chaturdasi (28 October), Govardhan Puja (30 October) and Bhai Duj (31 October) as restricted holidays. As of 22 October 2026, no state list and no RBI bank-holiday matrix for 2027 is on an official site, and the 2026 lists for Maharashtra and Delhi only came out in early December 2025.

If the break is too short to get home, the greeting travels instead: 48.3% of SubhSandesh pages are opened on a phone, and in our only festival sample, Raksha Bandhan 2026 (n = 89, a different and one-day festival), 49.4% of pages were built on the day itself. Below are the central list, what makes a day a legal holiday, the 2026 state pattern clearly labelled as 2026, banks, schools and leave planning.

The central list: what DoPT notified on 16 July 2026

The Department of Personnel and Training fixed the 2027 central holidays in Office Memorandum F.No.12/2/2023-JCA, dated 16 July 2026, and the Ministry of Jal Shakti's copy of that DoPT memorandum is the one we read. It lists 17 gazetted holidays for central offices in Delhi and New Delhi, with Diwali (Deepavali) on Friday 29 October 2027, which is Kartika 07 in the Saka calendar.

Around Diwali, the restricted list carries Naraka Chaturdasi on 28 October, Govardhan Puja on 30 October, Bhai Duj on 31 October and Chhath Puja on Thursday 4 November, and each employee may take any two restricted holidays in the year. Outside Delhi, Diwali is one of 14 holidays every central office must observe, with three more chosen by the Central Government Employees Welfare Coordination Committee in each state capital.

One paragraph matters for the south. Paragraph 6 of the memorandum lets central offices in a state observe the Deepavali holiday on Naraka Chaturdasi instead, if that state declares only that day as its compulsory Diwali holiday. So a central office in such a state could close on Thursday 28 October 2027 rather than Friday 29 October.

What makes a day a holiday: Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881

For banks, cheques and bills, the definition sits in Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881: a public holiday "includes Sundays and any other day declared by the Central Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, to be a public holiday". A bill that matures on such a day falls due on the preceding business day.

That is why your state's bank holidays and its office holidays are two separate lists. Maharashtra's 2026 notification declared 24 public holidays under Section 25, then added Bhaubeej on 11 November 2026 only for state offices, state undertakings and local bodies. It is also why a Sunday Diwali vanishes from the bank calendar: Sunday is already a holiday under the Act, so nothing new gets declared.

State-wise Diwali holidays: 2027 status and the 2026 pattern

None of the states below had a 2027 list on an official site we could fetch on 22 October 2026, so every date marked 2026 is history, not a forecast. Diwali fell on Sunday 8 November 2026, which is why so many 2026 lists show the main day on a weekend.

Maharashtra

The 2026 list came from the General Administration Department as notification PHD-1125/C.R.199/Japuk (29), dated 5 December 2025, which we read in the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai's copy. In 2026 it gave Diwali Amavasya (Laxmi Pujan) on Sunday 8 November, Diwali (Bali Pratipada) on Tuesday 10 November, and Bhaubeej on Wednesday 11 November for state and local-body offices only. Expect the 2027 notification around early December 2026; until then, any Maharashtra 2027 date online is a projection.

Karnataka

We could not read Karnataka's own 2026 notification, because the copy on a state website is a scanned image with no text layer. The RBI's November 2026 matrix shows Bengaluru banks shut on Tuesday 10 November for the Bali Pratipada and Deepavali entry and on Friday 27 November for Kanakadasa Jayanthi, with no Diwali-day entry because 8 November was a Sunday. Karnataka's 2027 list was not out as of 22 October 2026.

Delhi

Delhi's General Administration Department issued its 2026 list on 4 December 2025 (order F.53/812/GAD/CN/2025), and the Directorate of Education forwarded it to every school head on 10 December 2025. It had 18 gazetted holidays, Diwali on Sunday 8 November 2026, and Govardhan Puja (Monday 9 November) and Bhai Duj (Wednesday 11 November) as restricted holidays. For 2027, the same route points to December 2026.

Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and Andhra Pradesh

The RBI's November 2026 matrix shows no weekday bank holiday at all in Chennai, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Panaji or Vijayawada, which fits Deepavali falling on Sunday 8 November that year. For 2027 the open question is the day itself: Naraka Chaturdasi is Thursday 28 October on the central list, and DoPT's paragraph 6 exists because some states make that day the Diwali holiday. Only each state's 2027 notification will settle it.

Arunachal Pradesh

Arunachal issued its 2026 list early, on 26 August 2025 (No. GA-10/2015), with Diwali gazetted on Sunday 8 November 2026 and Naraka Chaturdasi, Govardhan Puja (9 November) and Bhai Duj (11 November) as restricted days. That notification says it does not apply to banks, which get a separate one. Social media posts in October 2026 say a 2027 list exists, but no 2027 PDF was on the state's holiday-documents site on 22 October 2026.

Banks and markets around Diwali 2027

The RBI holiday matrix, last updated 19 October 2026, offers 2026 as its latest year, so no bank-holiday list for Diwali 2027 exists yet. In November 2026 it shows Diwali-week bank holidays on 9 November in eight centres including Jaipur and Lucknow, on 10 November in seven including Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru, and on 11 November, the Bhai Dooj and Bhratridwitiya entry, in six including Kolkata and Kanpur.

One date to watch: the same page says banks close on second and fourth Saturdays, and Saturday 30 October 2027 is the fifth Saturday of the month. Unless a state notifies Govardhan Puja or Bali Pratipada for that day, branches there would be open, so a state that notifies only 29 October gives bank staff Friday and Sunday, not a long weekend.

On markets, a ten-year study of the BSE 500 and NIFTY 500 from April 2011 to March 2021 found no November "Diwali effect" in returns, although an earlier study it reviews had reported one. It worked with monthly returns, so it says nothing about a single Diwali trading session.

Diwali school holidays 2027: set later, school by school

School Diwali breaks for 2027 fall inside the 2027-28 academic session, and we found no state board's calendar for that session published as of 22 October 2026. What arrives first is the state's general holiday list, which Delhi's Directorate of Education sent to all government, aided and recognised private schools six days after the 2026 order.

The extra days around the festival are a school or board decision. Use the state list, expected around December 2026, for the fixed day, then confirm the break in your school's own 2027-28 calendar before booking travel.

Planning leave around Friday 29 October 2027

Because Diwali 2027 is a Friday, the central list alone gives a three-day weekend, and one restricted holiday stretches it to four. The Lokpal of India's 2027 calendar goes further, blocking out Tuesday 26 to Saturday 30 October as Diwali holidays with a local holiday on Monday 25 October. The table compares the patterns that published 2027 calendars allow.

The takeaway: a central employee needs at most two days of their own leave for a five-day break. Bank customers should assume Saturday 30 October is a working day until their state says otherwise.

Too short to travel home? What a link can and cannot do

Three days is still tight for anyone whose family is a long train ride away. If you are staying put, SubhSandesh's interactive Diwali card with diyas, rangoli and sky lanterns lets the person you can't reach light a diya at their door, light a row of diyas carrying your wishes and send up sky lanterns holding up to six photos, then open your letter from a shagun liffafa. It takes about five minutes to make, and the private link opens in any phone or laptop browser with no app or account.

For a partner in another city, SubhSandesh's "I miss you" page with a reunion countdown is the closer fit, though it is a long-distance page, not a Diwali one. In its first two months, 28.0% of its senders set a reunion date (60 of 214 pages), too small and too new to show any festival pattern. Timing matters as well, since 27.0% of Raksha Bandhan 2026 pages were built the day before that festival.

A link is the wrong answer when leave is available, because three days at home beat any page. It is also a poor fit for a grandparent who does not use a smartphone or laptop, since the card only works in a browser; a phone call on the evening of 29 October does more there.

Sources

• DoPT O.M. F.No.12/2/2023-JCA, holidays for 2027, 16 July 2026, Ministry of Jal Shakti copy.
• Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, Section 25.
• Maharashtra GAD, Public Holidays 2026, 5 December 2025, MCGM copy.
• Reserve Bank of India, Holidays matrix, November 2026 view, last updated 19 October 2026.
• Lokpal of India, Calendar 2027, no publication date printed.
• Elangovan, Irudayasamy and Parayitam, "Month-of-the-Year Effect", Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, January 2022, Europe PMC.