How does India mark Long Holiday Weeks?
दुर्गा पूजा की छुट्टियाँ
- Local date
- October 15, 2026–October 26, 2026
- When is it?
- The Durga Puja days from Maha Chaturthi to Dashami in the bright half of the month of Ashvin, notified each year by the West Bengal finance department; the state's own "Additional Day for Durga Puja" entries correspond to no rite at all.
India's public holidays are not issued by the centre. Each state declares them under the explanation to Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, read with a Ministry of Home Affairs notification of 8 June 1957 — which means a country's holiday system rests on a nineteenth-century law about cheques. West Bengal's Finance (Audit) Department notification No. 4188-F(P2) of 27 November 2025 divides 2026 into three lists. List I is public holidays under the Act, and it carries Durga Puja Maha Astami on 19 October, Maha Nabami on the 20th and Dasami on the 21st. List II is holidays by order of the state government: state offices shut, banks do not, and three of its entries — 22, 23 and 24 October — are titled simply "Additional Day for Durga Puja" and correspond to no rite. List III is sectional: Easter Saturday for Christians only, Hul Diwas on 30 June for Santhal Adivasis only. Stitched together, 15 to 26 October is twelve consecutive days, the longest run of any of these seven places — and it exists in one state.
What is this topic?
Seven places all end up with a run of consecutive days off, and not one of them builds it the same way. Japan's holiday act fills the gap by itself and nobody has to announce anything. China's State Council issues a notice every November that borrows weekends forward and takes them back afterwards as working Saturdays. Indonesia's joint leave is decided by three ministers together — and it is deducted from the worker's own annual leave. Taiwan rewrote its holiday law in 2025 and now only adds compensatory days, never borrowed ones. Brazil bridges with unnamed days declared by ministerial order that bind federal offices only. The United States moved five holidays to Mondays in 1968 and has done nothing since. India leaves it to the states, under a banking statute from 1881.
Sources and dates
Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.