The 2027 festival calendar for sweet shops and bakeries, month by month
Every 2027 peak and lull for a sweet shop or bakery, month by month, from Sankranti to Christmas, with the packaging each one needs and two disputed dates.
Holi fell on 4 March in 2026. In 2027 it falls about three weeks later, on 22 or 23 March. Raksha Bandhan goes the other way: 28 August in 2026, 17 August in 2027.
So a 2027 plan copied from the 2026 diary will be wrong in both directions.
The reason is the extra lunar month (Adhik Maas) that 2026 carried in May and June. It came after Holi and before Rakhi, so it left spring early and autumn late. 2027 has no extra month, so the Hindu festivals of spring move later and those of autumn move earlier.
Here is how we see the whole year, in one line. A sweet shop or bakery in 2027 has peaks in mid-January, mid-February, March (Eid and Holi within two weeks), the wedding months of late April to early July, August (Teej, Rakhi, Janmashtami), early September, and the long run from Navratri on 30 September to Chhath on 4 November, then Christmas. The quiet stretches are Pitru Paksha in late September and the wedding breaks.
Checked against official sources on 28 October 2026.
I took the dates from the Central Government holiday list for 2027 (DoPT office memorandum of 16 July 2026) and from the Drikpanchang 2027 Hindu calendar for New Delhi. Where they disagree, I give both. Eid depends on the moon and can move by a day.
We sell packaging at Jagannath Polymers in Jaipur, so for each month we have noted what the packaging has to do. The sweets themselves are your craft, and I would not try to tell you how to make a gujiya.
January: til, kites and the first weddings
Lohri falls on Thursday 14 January. Makar Sankranti is listed on 14 January in the Central Government list and on 15 January in Drikpanchang, because the Sun enters Capricorn late on the evening of the 14th, so the punya kaal falls on the 15th. Pongal is on Friday 15 January. The first wedding muhurat of the year falls on the same day.
This is the month of til laddoo, gajak, rewari and chikki. In Jaipur, Sankranti means kites on every roof and til in every shop. These sweets are brittle and sugary. In damp air they go sticky and press into each other, and the til leaves oil marks on plain board. We would pack them in a sealed pouch or a lined tin, with a sheet or cup between layers.
February: Vasant Panchami and Valentine's Day
Vasant Panchami falls on Thursday 11 February, the day of yellow sweets and kesar. Valentine's Day is on Sunday 14 February, a bakery day for cakes, cupcakes and chocolates. February also has 13 wedding dates, the most of any month before May.
For bakeries, the cake box is the pack that matters this month.
Staple pins on cake boxes have been out since June 2026, so we would close the box with a tuck flap, tape or a seal label. Our guide to closing sweet and cake boxes without staple pins compares the options.
March: Shivaratri, Eid and Holi within three weeks
- Maha Shivaratri, Saturday 6 March. Vrat sweets and thandai.
- Eid al-Fitr, about Wednesday 10 March, depending on the moon. Sewaiyan, dates and dry fruit boxes, after the Ramadan weeks of iftar orders.
- Holika Dahan on 21 March (Drikpanchang) or 22 March (Central Government list).
- Holi on Monday 22 March (Drikpanchang, where the full moon ends on the afternoon of the 22nd) or Tuesday 23 March (Central Government holiday).
Gujiya is the pack problem of March.
The crust breaks, and the khoya filling does not like the March heat. We would give each piece its own cup or cavity, and keep khoya gujiya out of boxes meant to travel for days. For Holi namkeen, we would use a pouch that keeps out moisture.
Wedding dates pause from 15 March to 17 April, the Kharmas break.
April: Navratri, Gangaur and Ram Navami
Chaitra Navratri begins on Wednesday 7 April, the same day as Gudi Padwa and Ugadi. Gangaur falls on Friday 9 April, a big day in Rajasthan, and Ram Navami on Thursday 15 April. Wedding dates return from 18 April.
Fasting food leads the month: sabudana, makhana and kuttu namkeen, and vrat sweets. These are dry products, and we think they need a sealed pouch more than a fancy box. By the end of April, the heat starts to shorten the life of every milk sweet on your counter.
May: Akshaya Tritiya, Mother's Day, Eid al-Adha and the wedding peak
Akshaya Tritiya falls on Sunday 9 May, which is also Mother's Day (the second Sunday of May). I expect one very busy Sunday for sweet shops and bakeries alike. Eid al-Adha falls on about Monday 17 May, depending on the moon. May has 18 wedding dates, the most in 2027.
May is shagun box month, and it is also the hottest stretch of the year in much of North India.
A milk sweet in a beautiful box still spoils in the heat. Our guide on keeping mithai fresh covers what packaging can and cannot do here.
June and July: the last weddings before the rains
June has 16 wedding dates. The last wedding date before Chaturmas is 12 July, and Devshayani Ekadashi on Wednesday 14 July starts the four-month break. Rath Yatra falls on Monday 5 July, a big day in Odisha.
The monsoon arrives in these weeks. Dry sweets go soft, namkeen goes limp in a leaky pouch, and board boxes in a damp store room lose their stiffness. We would keep box stock raised and covered from July, and seal every pouch properly. Our guide to wedding dates in 2027 explains how to plan box stock across the gap.
August: Teej, Rakhi and Janmashtami
- Hariyali Teej, Wednesday 4 August. In Rajasthan this is ghewar season.
- Independence Day, Sunday 15 August.
- Raksha Bandhan, Tuesday 17 August, eleven days earlier than in 2026.
- Kajari Teej, Friday 20 August.
- Janmashtami, Wednesday 25 August. Peda, panjiri and makhan mishri.
In my view, ghewar is the hardest pack of the year. It is a wide, delicate disc soaked in ghee and syrup. It needs a rigid round box or tin, a greaseproof base, and it hates being stacked. For Rakhi, small combo boxes of sweets and a rakhi travel by courier to brothers in other cities, in the middle of the monsoon. Our guide on how to ship sweets and cakes covers the parcel.
September: Ganesh Chaturthi, then the Pitru Paksha pause
Ganesh Chaturthi falls on Saturday 4 September, and I expect modak boxes to lead the month. Onam is on Sunday 12 September. Pitru Paksha runs from Thursday 16 September to Wednesday 29 September, and gift sales slow while families observe shraddh.
We would use that fortnight. In our view it is the best time of the year to receive and check Diwali stock. Sharad Navratri begins the very next day, Thursday 30 September.
October: Navratri to Bhai Dooj
Durga Ashtami is on 7 October, Dussehra on Saturday 9 October and Karwa Chauth on Monday 18 October. Then Dhanteras on Wednesday 27 October, Diwali on Friday 29 October, Govardhan Puja on 30 October and Bhai Dooj on Sunday 31 October.
This is the month every sweet shop already plans for. Our Diwali 2027 sweet-box calendar works back from Dhanteras week by week, so I will not repeat it here.
November: Chhath, weddings and Gurpurab
Chhath Puja falls on Thursday 4 November. Devuthani Ekadashi on Wednesday 10 November ends Chaturmas, and weddings start again the same day, with 11 dates in November. Guru Nanak Jayanti falls on Sunday 14 November.
The squeeze here is time.
Wedding orders for mid-November arrive while the Diwali rush is still on. We would order the plain boxes for November weddings together with the Diwali lot.
December: the last weddings, Christmas and New Year's Eve
The last wedding date of 2027 is 14 December. Kharmas begins with Dhanu Sankranti on Thursday 16 December. Christmas Eve falls on Friday 24 December, Christmas on Saturday 25 December and New Year's Eve on Friday 31 December.
December belongs to the bakery: plum cake, fruit cake, cookies and gift tins. A rich fruit cake keeps far longer than a cream cake, so that is the one I would put in gift boxes and courier parcels. We would treat cream cakes for the 31st as a local, same-day pack.
What to do now: build your 2027 wall calendar
Here is what we would do before January:
- Print a twelve-month calendar for 2027 and mark every date above. Mark both dates for Sankranti and Holi.
- Write "plus or minus one day" next to both Eid dates.
- Next to each peak, write the packs it needs (cake boxes, pouches, tins, shagun boxes, courier cartons) and the date they must be in your store.
- Copy your 2026 sales onto the 2027 calendar, moving spring festivals later and autumn ones about ten days earlier.
- Check each date with your local panchang a month before. Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bengal and the south often follow their own calendars.
- Mark the lulls in a different colour. They are where the planning, the stock counts and the supplier visits should go.
I would hang it next to the cash counter, where the whole team sees it every day.
A calendar in a drawer helps nobody.
Questions buyers ask
Which date should I use for Holi 2027, 22 or 23 March?
Plan stock for both. Drikpanchang puts Dhulandi, the day of colours, on Monday 22 March, while Central Government offices close on Tuesday 23 March. Ask a few regular customers which day your town will play, and keep the gujiya peak flexible across 20 to 23 March.
Are the Eid dates in 2027 fixed?
No. Eid al-Fitr (about 10 March) and Eid al-Adha (about 17 May) depend on the sighting of the moon and can move by a day. Keep a day of slack on either side.
Why are so many 2027 festivals earlier than in 2026, but Holi is later?
2026 had an extra lunar month in May and June. Festivals before it, like Holi, came early in 2026, and festivals after it came late. 2027 has no extra month, so Holi moves later and everything from Rakhi to Diwali moves about ten days earlier.