When is Holi (Dhulandi)?

Two festivals, two rules

Most people treat Holi as a two-day event, and the calendar agrees — but it reaches that answer by computing two independent rules rather than by counting one day forward from the other.

Holika Dahan is the Purnima of Phalguna, the full moon that closes the lunar year in the purnimanta reckoning. Its vyapini reference — the moment at which the tithi has to be prevailing for the day to count — is pradosh, the period just after sunset. That is the correct reference for a rite performed at a bonfire after dark.

Holi itself, the day of colours, is the Pratipada of Chaitra Krishna paksha: the first tithi after that full moon. Its reference is plain sunrise, because it is a day-long observance rather than an event at a particular hour.

Because the two rules are evaluated separately, the gap between them is an outcome, not an assumption. It is nearly always one day. It is not guaranteed to be.

Why the month name changes between sources

You will see Holi placed in Phalguna by some almanacs and in Chaitra by others, and neither is wrong. Under purnimanta reckoning a lunar month ends at the full moon, so Holika Dahan closes Phalguna and Holi opens Chaitra’s waning fortnight. Under amanta reckoning the month ends at the new moon instead, so both days remain inside Phalguna.

This site indexes under purnimanta names, which is the northern convention and the one the major almanacs use for festival listings. The underlying dates are identical. Amanta and purnimanta covers the split in full, including which regions use which.

Why the date moves so much

Holi lands anywhere from late February to late March. Twelve lunar months run about eleven days short of a solar year, so the festival drifts earlier each year until an intercalary month resets it. The eleven-year table above shows the whole swing, which is more useful than a single date when you are planning travel more than a year out.

Major festivals are suppressed inside an Adhika — intercalary — month by design, so a leap Phalguna pushes Holi to the true Phalguna that follows rather than producing two Holis.

Bhadra and the bonfire

The one timing question that comes up every year is Bhadra. The Vishti karana is traditionally avoided for Holika Dahan, and because Bhadra frequently occupies part of the Purnima, families often wait for it to end before lighting the fire.

We compute the Bhadra window and show it on the day’s panchang. The Bhadra explainer sets out the rule, including the sign-based vasa distinction that decides whether a given Bhadra is held to be harmful on earth at all. What we do not do is move the festival date because of it — Bhadra affects the chosen hour, not which day the tithi falls on.

On the day

Open the panchang for your own city to get sunrise, the exact end of the tithi and the Bhadra window for the date. Those three numbers are what the local decisions actually turn on, and all of them are location-dependent in a way the national date is not.