Delhi's festival calendar and what actually shuts: Holi, Diwali, Republic Day and dry days
Marigold garlands and clay lamps in a Delhi market before Diwali
Four days a year Delhi genuinely stops working, three of them are dry days with no alcohol sold anywhere in the city, and each has a different set of road closures — here is the 2026 calendar and how to plan a trip through it.
Republic Day, 26 January: two weeks of closures, not one day
The parade runs down Kartavya Path from Vijay Chowk past India Gate, and the disruption begins around 17 January, not on the 26th. Rehearsals close the route on several mornings, the full dress rehearsal on 23 January is effectively a second parade with the same closures, and the Beating Retreat ceremony at Vijay Chowk follows on 29 January. Expect exit closures at Central Secretariat and Udyog Bhawan Metro stations on rehearsal and parade days, a citywide drone and balloon ban, and heavy checking on approaches into Lutyens Delhi.
In 2026 the 26th is a Monday, which makes it a three-day domestic-travel weekend and pushes central Delhi rates up sharply — Lutyens-area landmarks back over ₹22,000, Aerocity to ₹10,000 to ₹13,000. Parade tickets are sold through the official portal at modest prices, typically in the ₹20 to ₹500 range depending on the enclosure, and go fast; without one, watch the dress rehearsal or the television. It is a dry day: no bar, no liquor shop, no room service alcohol anywhere in Delhi. Practical advice: stay south of the Ring Road that week and use the Metro.
Holi, early March: the day Delhi truly stops
Holi falls on Wednesday 4 March in 2026, with the Holika Dahan bonfires the previous evening. Until about 2 p.m. on the day itself, Delhi shuts harder than for any other festival. Shops are closed, most restaurants are closed, app cabs are scarce and expensive, autorickshaws largely disappear, and the streets belong to groups throwing dry colour and water. From mid-afternoon the city washes, changes and reopens; by evening restaurants trade normally and you would barely know. The whole shutdown lasts about eight hours.
For visitors the honest guidance is: do not wander. Colour is thrown at strangers by definition, water balloons come from balconies, and a proportion of the crowd has been drinking bhang since nine in the morning. Solo women in particular report the street version as uncomfortable. The good version is an organised party — hotels, farmhouse venues in Chattarpur and Chhatarpur-area event spaces run ticketed Holi events at ₹1,500 to ₹3,500 including colour, food and music, with security at the gate. Book an airport transfer the night before if you are flying on Holi morning.
Diwali week, November: shopping chaos, then silence
Diwali is Sunday 8 November in 2026, and the fortnight before it is the busiest retail period of the Indian year. Bhagirath Palace in Old Delhi, the electrical and lighting wholesale market, becomes genuinely impassable. Sadar Bazaar, Chandni Chowk and Lajpat Nagar run at maximum density from Dhanteras onwards, and traffic across north and central Delhi seizes for about five days. If you want to see this, go on foot from Chawri Bazaar Metro station in the morning, and understand you are joining a crush, not browsing.
On Diwali day itself, offices, most shops and many restaurants close, and the city goes quiet by early evening as families move indoors for the puja. Firecrackers are banned in Delhi and still audible from about 8 p.m. The following morning is reliably the worst air of the year, often above AQI 450. Hotel rates spike across the whole week. If your dates are flexible, arriving on 10 or 11 November gives you the decorated city, functioning restaurants and no crush, though not much better air.
Ramadan and Eid: the best month to eat in Old Delhi
Ramadan runs from roughly 18 February to 19 March in 2026, overlapping Holi, with Eid al-Fitr around 20 March. During the fasting month, the Matia Mahal lane running east from Jama Masjid becomes the most concentrated food street in north India after sunset: seekh kebabs off the coal, nihari, korma, khameeri roti, phirni in clay pots, and the sweet shops selling shahi tukda until two in the morning. Prices are street prices — a plate of kebabs at ₹120 to ₹250, phirni at ₹40 to ₹60.
Two things to know. Daytime is the opposite: many Old Delhi eateries stay shut or subdued until iftar, so a lunchtime food walk in Ramadan is a wasted trip. Go from 6.30 p.m. onwards and let the crowd carry you. On Eid morning, Jama Masjid holds mass prayers and the whole area is closed to vehicles, packed and celebratory; visitors are welcome to look on from the edges but should dress modestly and stay out of the prayer courtyard until it clears.
Navratri, Durga Puja and Dussehra: the October fortnight
In autumn, Delhi runs several festivals in parallel. Chittaranjan Park, the Bengali neighbourhood in south Delhi, builds elaborate Durga Puja pandals for five days with an outdoor food scene that is the best Bengali eating of the year — kathi rolls, fish fry, mishti doi — and it stays open to anyone who walks in, free. Simultaneously, Ramlila troupes perform nightly at Ramlila Maidan and on the grounds facing Red Fort, culminating with the burning of towering Ravana effigies on Dussehra.
Navratri also affects what you can eat. Many restaurants add fasting menus, and in some neighbourhoods meat shops close for nine days entirely — noticeable in Karol Bagh, parts of west Delhi and around temple areas. Chhath Puja follows a few weeks later, when the Yamuna ghats fill before dawn with worshippers standing in the river, and it is a Delhi public holiday with schools and many offices shut. None of this closes monuments or transport; it simply changes what the evenings look like.
Dry days, Independence Day and the Old Delhi lockdown
Three national dry days close every bar, liquor shop and hotel minibar in Delhi: Republic Day on 26 January, Independence Day on 15 August and Gandhi Jayanti on 2 October. In 2026, 15 August is a Saturday and 2 October a Friday, so both create long weekends. Additional dry days are notified for certain religious dates and around elections, usually with a few days' notice. Hotels comply strictly; do not expect a quiet exception, and if a drink matters on those dates, buy it the day before.
Independence Day also seals the walled city. The Prime Minister speaks from the Red Fort ramparts at dawn, and from the small hours the whole area is locked down: Metro exits closed at Lal Qila, Chandni Chowk and Jama Masjid, roads shut from Kashmere Gate to Daryaganj, no parking, and a citywide ban on kites and balloons that affects flights. Plan 15 August entirely in south Delhi. Attendance at the ceremony requires an invitation or an advance security pass, so treat the day as one to spend in a museum.
The weekly closures that catch people out
Beyond the festival calendar, Delhi runs a rolling weekly-off system that has ruined more itineraries than any holiday. Red Fort and most museums, including the National Museum and the Crafts Museum, close on Mondays. Khan Market and Connaught Place's inner-circle shops largely shut on Sundays, as does the whole of Chandni Chowk's wholesale trade, which is why a Sunday walk through Old Delhi feels like a different city. Sarojini Nagar and Karol Bagh markets close on Mondays. Lajpat Nagar's Central Market closes Mondays too.
Build the week around it. Put Old Delhi on any day except Sunday, museums on any day except Monday, and shopping on Tuesday to Saturday. Reserve Sunday for the sites that never close — Humayun's Tomb, Qutub Minar, Lodhi Garden, Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, the Lotus Temple except Mondays — and for Dilli Haat at INA, which trades daily for about ₹30 entry. Thursday evening should always be Nizamuddin Dargah for the qawwali, which happens after sunset prayers, every week, all year.
Before you book
What people ask before booking Karol Bagh.
On the open street it is unpredictable: colour, water and a drinking crowd, with harassment reported often enough to take seriously, particularly for women alone. Inside a ticketed hotel or venue party at ₹1,500 to ₹3,500 it is straightforwardly good fun. If you must move around the city that morning, book a car in advance and keep the windows up.
Yes. ASI sites including Humayun's Tomb, Qutub Minar and Red Fort keep normal hours on most festivals, with Red Fort still closed on Mondays and around Independence Day security operations. What closes is commerce: shops, offices and many restaurants on Diwali day and Holi morning. Museums follow their usual Monday closure regardless of the calendar.
Nowhere in Delhi, legally. Every retail vend, bar and hotel outlet closes, including in five-star hotels. Neighbouring Gurugram and Noida sit in different states and sometimes do not observe the same notified dry days, but for national holidays such as 26 January and 15 August the restriction applies across the region. Plan ahead by a day.
Diwali for spectacle and Holi for participation, but if you want the best combination of atmosphere and usability, come during Ramadan in late February or March. The weather is at its best, hotel rates sit below the November peak, and the night food scene around Jama Masjid runs at a level it never reaches at any other point in the year.
