Govardhan Puja 2026

Dates around the world · 2026

Date source: drikpanchang.com (New Delhi, Edison, New Jersey, San Jose, California, London, Toronto, Sydney). Dates are taken from the cited published panchang for each region and year; regions we could not verify are left out.

How to observe

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1. 1In the morning, bathe and clean the puja space. In Braj this is done in the courtyard; abroad, the kitchen table or a corner of the living room is fine.
2. 2Make a small Govardhan hill. It is traditionally shaped from cow dung. Abroad, many families shape it from wheat-flour dough on a tray or a large plate, or simply arrange the Annakut food in a hill. Add a small picture or murti of Krishna and, if you like, little cows, twigs for trees and flowers.
3. 3Cook the Annakut: as many dishes as you can manage. Temples offer 56; at home a few are enough, for example the mixed-vegetable annakut sabzi, kadhi, rice, puri and one sweet. Many families cook bhog without onion and garlic.
4. 4In your city's muhurat (morning, or the afternoon window in the table), light a diya and offer roli, akshat, flowers, water, a little milk and sweets to the hill.
5. 5Recite Vakratunda Mahakaya, then the Madhurashtakam or any Krishna text your family knows.
6. 6Walk around the hill seven times with the family. Some carry a lota of water and let a thin stream fall as they go, if that is your family's way. In a small flat, put the tray on a low table you can walk around.
7. 7Offer the Annakut to Krishna, then sing Aarti Kunj Bihari Ki and Om Jai Jagdish Hare.
8. 8Share the prasad with family, friends and neighbours. Many Indian temples abroad hold an Annakut darshan that evening, and families often bring a dish.
9. 9Cows are honoured in Braj on this day. Abroad, families usually remember them in prayer, or offer fodder at a temple that keeps cows.
10. 10Apartment note: keep the diya on a plate, away from curtains and smoke detectors, and don't leave it alone. An electric diya is fine where flames are not allowed.

Customs differ by family and region. Follow your family tradition and temple where they differ from these steps.

What you will need

• For the hill: wheat flour (atta) for a dough hill, the usual choice abroad, or the Annakut dishes themselves arranged in a hill. Cow dung is traditional where it is available.
• A tray or large steel plate to build it on.
• A small picture or murti of Krishna. Little cow figures, twigs and flowers to decorate, if you like.
• Annakut ingredients: seasonal vegetables from any supermarket, rice, besan for kadhi, flour for puri, milk and sugar for kheer or a milk sweet. Indian grocery stores (Patel Brothers in the US, and the Indian shops in Southall, Wembley, Leicester, Brampton or Harris Park) have the rest.
• Tulsi leaves for the bhog if you have a plant. Some Indian grocers sell tulsi plants; if you have none, offer the bhog without.
• Diya with ghee or oil (or an electric diya), agarbatti, roli, akshat (unbroken rice), flowers.
• Water, a little milk, and a few drops of Ganga jal if you have it, for offering to the hill.
• A lota for the parikrama, if your family walks with water.

Texts to recite

• Vakratunda MahakayaVakratunda Mahakaya is a two-line Sanskrit shloka to Lord Ganesh and one of the most widely recited. It asks the Lord with the curved trunk, radiant as ten million suns, to keep all our work free of obstacles. Tradition says it before any puja, study, journey or new venture, and many people chant it 11, 21 or 108 times on Wednesdays and on Ganesh Chaturthi.
• MadhurashtakamMadhurashtakam is an eight-verse Sanskrit hymn to Lord Krishna by Shri Vallabhacharya, founder of the Pushti Marg. Every line uses one word, 'madhuram' (sweet), to say that everything about Krishna is sweet: his lips, smile, flute, walk, friends and cows. Its refrain, 'Madhuradhipater akhilam madhuram', means 'all of the Lord of Sweetness is sweet'.
• Aarti Kunj Bihari KiAarti Kunj Bihari Ki is one of the best-loved aartis of Lord Krishna, sung in homes and temples across North India and the diaspora. In a refrain and four stanzas of Braj-flavoured Hindi, it pictures Krishna of Vrindavan beside Radha, with his flute, peacock crown and Vaijayanti garland. Families sing it daily, and above all at midnight on Janmashtami.
• Om Jai Jagdish HareOm Jai Jagdish Hare is one of the best-known Hindu aartis, a Hindi hymn to Lord Vishnu as Jagdish, "Lord of the universe", written by Pandit Shardha Ram Phillauri of Punjab around 1870. It has a refrain and seven stanzas asking Vishnu to remove sorrow, forgive our faults and increase our faith. Many families close their puja or Satyanarayan katha with it, in India and across the diaspora.

Questions