Govardhan Puja 2026
10 November 2026

Govardhan Puja falls on Kartik Shukla Pratipada, the day after Diwali. It remembers the Bhagavata Purana’s story of Krishna lifting Govardhan hill to shelter the people and cattle of Vraj from Indra’s rain. That is why the day honours the hill, the cows and the food the land gives, and why Krishna is called Giridhari, the one who held up the hill.

Homes shape a Govardhan of cow dung in the courtyard, decorate it with flowers and small figures of cows and cowherds, and walk around it in parikrama. Temples and homes prepare the Annakut, a mountain of food: as many dishes as the family can make, offered to Krishna and then shared. In Mathura and Vrindavan, devotees walk the parikrama of Govardhan hill itself.

• Fresh cow dung
• Flowers and doob grass (durva, the sacred grass of the puja)
• Small figures of cows and cowherds
• Roli, akshat and haldi
• Milk, curd and water
• Diya, incense and camphor
• Tulsi leaves
• The Annakut dishes
• Sweets for prasad

Source: Bhagavata Purana, Book 10

Every year the cowherds of Vraj prepared a great offering for Indra, the lord of rain. The young Krishna asked his father Nanda why. Their living, Krishna said, came from the cows and from Govardhan hill, whose grass fed the herds; let the offering go to the hill, the cows and the brahmins instead. Persuaded, the people of Vraj offered the food to Govardhan.

Indra, angered at the slight, sent torrents of rain and wind upon Vraj. The people and the cattle ran to Krishna for shelter. He lifted Govardhan hill with one hand, as easily as a child lifts a mushroom, and held it up for seven days while all of Vraj stayed dry beneath it.

Seeing this, Indra’s pride broke. He stopped the clouds, came to Krishna and asked his forgiveness, and Krishna set the hill back in its place. The Annakut of this day recalls the food that Vraj first offered to the hill.

What to do

• Make and worship the Govardhan in the morning, while the Pratipada holds, so the puja and the parikrama are done in daylight.
• Feed a cow before the family eats, since the day honours the herds Krishna sheltered.
• Share the Annakut with neighbours, with those who work in your home, and with anyone who comes, since the day is about food given freely.

What to avoid

• Avoid stale or leftover food in the Annakut; the bhog is cooked fresh for Krishna.
• Avoid onion and garlic in the Annakut dishes, since they are offered to Krishna as bhog.

Because the day falls in the bright half, the month is Kartik in both calendars, Purnimanta and Amanta. In Gujarat the day is Bestu Varas, the new year, when the Vikram Samvat begins there. In Maharashtra it is Bali Pratipada or Diwali Padwa, and in Karnataka Bali Padyami, remembering King Bali. The Bhagavata Purana, Book 8, tells how Vamana asked Bali for three steps of land, covered the worlds in two, and placed the third on Bali’s head, sending him to Sutala, one of the realms below the earth; tradition holds that Bali returns to visit on this day.

The day is decided by the Pratipada in the morning, at each place’s own sunrise. When the Amavasya runs well into the morning after Diwali, Govardhan Puja moves to the following day, leaving a gap of one day after the Lakshmi Puja.

Some years the Pratipada begins after one sunrise and ends before the next, so it holds at no sunrise at all. Govardhan Puja is then kept on the day it begins, and the morning muhurat starts at the minute it begins: a short window, sometimes only a quarter of an hour.