Jain Festival Calendar 2026

Jain festivals follow a lunar calendar, so every date below moves against the Gregorian calendar each year — by roughly eleven days, because the lunar year is that much shorter. Last year's date is never this year's date. These are read from the panchang rather than calculated.

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What each observance marks

Mahavir Janma Kalyanak (Mahavir Jayanti)

The birth of Mahavira, the twenty-fourth and last Tirthankara of the present cycle, in the thirteenth day of the bright fortnight of Chaitra. Temples hold processions and the images are ceremonially bathed. It is the most widely observed single-day Jain festival, and a public holiday in much of India.

Akshaya Tritiya

Marks Rishabhanatha breaking his year-long fast with sugarcane juice offered by King Shreyansa — the first alms given to an ascetic in this cycle, and the origin of the practice of offering food to ascetics. It is the day on which those keeping Varshi Tap, the year-long alternating fast, take their parana.

Paryushan Parva

The eight-day Svetambara parva of fasting, scriptural recitation and self-examination, ending on Samvatsari. The most important observance in the Jain year. Full guide.

Samvatsari

The final day of Paryushan, given to Samvatsari Pratikraman and the annual asking of forgiveness of every living being. What Michhami Dukkadam means.

Das Lakshana Parva

The Digambara ten-day parva beginning the day after Samvatsari, contemplating one of the ten supreme virtues on each day. Full guide.

Anant Chaturdashi

The tenth and final day of Das Lakshana, marked by the most elaborate puja of the parva and by the Ananta Vrata.

Kshamavani

The Digambara day of forgiveness, the day after Anant Chaturdashi — the counterpart of Samvatsari.

Diwali / Mahavir Nirvana Kalyanak

Jain Diwali marks the nirvana of Mahavira at Pavapuri, and the attainment of kevala jnana by his chief disciple Gautama Swami the following morning. The lamps are lit for the light that went out of the world with Mahavira's liberation, which makes the Jain observance quieter than the surrounding festival — night-long recitation and fasting rather than fireworks. The Jain new year begins the next day.

Gyan Panchami

A day for the veneration of knowledge, five days after Diwali. Manuscripts and scriptures are cleaned, displayed and worshipped; temple libraries open their collections. It is the observance most directly connected to the preservation of Jain literature.

Kartik Purnima

The full moon closing the four-month monsoon retreat, when ascetics resume their wandering. Traditionally the day of pilgrimage to Shatrunjaya in Palitana, the most important Svetambara pilgrimage site, which reopens to pilgrims after the rains.

Why the dates move

The Jain calendar is lunisolar: months follow the moon, and an extra month is inserted periodically to keep the lunar year aligned with the solar seasons. Since the Gregorian calendar is purely solar, a Jain festival lands on a different Gregorian date each year, drifting earlier by about eleven days until an intercalary month pushes it back.

Dates can also differ by a day between panchangs, between regions, and between countries — this is normal rather than an error, and follows from how the start of a lunar day is reckoned against local sunrise. Where a date matters for booking leave or travel, confirm it with your own sangh.