If you've ever tried to plan a Ganesh Chaturthi celebration, you know the tricky part isn't the puja itself, it's the calendar. Between Sthapana, daily rituals, and figuring out exactly when to immerse the idol, it's easy to lose track of what happens when. So here's a clear, no-fuss calendar for 2026, from the day Ganesha arrives to the day he leaves.
The Big Picture: Ganesh Chaturthi 2026 at a Glance
Ganesh Sthapana (Installation): Monday, September 14, 2026
Chaturthi Tithi Begins: 7:06 AM on September 14, 2026
Chaturthi Tithi Ends: 7:44 AM on September 15, 2026
Sthapana Muhurat (Auspicious Installation Window): 11:02 AM to 1:31 PM on September 14
Anant Chaturdashi / Main Visarjan: Friday, September 25, 2026
That's the ten-day span most people mean when they talk about Ganeshotsav — starting on a Monday and closing out on a Friday, which happens to work out nicely for anyone squeezing celebrations around a weekend.
Day 1: Ganesh Sthapana — September 14, 2026
Everything begins here. Ganesh Sthapana is the ceremony where the idol is installed at home or in a pandal and brought to life through Pranapratishtha, the ritual of invoking divine presence into the clay form.
For 2026, the Sthapana Muhurat, the astrologically favorable window to perform this installation, falls between 11:02 AM and 1:31 PM. This is the stretch priests and families generally aim for, since installing the idol within this window is believed to invite the most auspicious start to the festival.
One thing worth flagging for the day: there's a moon-viewing restriction in effect from 9:01 AM to 8:09 PM on September 14. Traditionally, devotees avoid looking at the moon during this window, tied to an old story about Ganesha cursing the moon for laughing at him. It's a small thing, but it's one of those details families like to keep in mind on the big day.
The 1.5-day format has become especially popular in cities, where families install Ganesha on the morning of the 14th and bid farewell the following evening, a compact but complete cycle of welcome, worship, and goodbye. On the other hand, the full ten-day celebration is the format most associated with Maharashtra's grand public pandals, where the anticipation builds daily until the final immersion.
None of these durations carry more or less spiritual merit than another. What matters, as most priests will tell you, is the sincerity behind the worship, not how many days it stretches across.
The Days In Between: What Happens During the Festival
Whichever duration you choose, the days between Sthapana and Visarjan follow a similar rhythm. Mornings usually start with lighting a lamp and offering fresh flowers, followed by placing durva grass at Ganesha's feet. Fresh offerings, fruit, coconut, modak when possible, are made daily, along with a short aarti. Evenings often bring family members together again for another round of prayers, sometimes with devotional songs or simply quiet time in front of the idol.
It's less about elaborate ceremonies every single day and more about consistency — showing up, morning and evening, for as long as your chosen celebration lasts.
Day 10: Anant Chaturdashi — The Main Visarjan, September 25, 2026
For those observing the full ten-day Ganeshotsav, Friday, September 25, 2026 is the date to circle for Visarjan — the immersion of the idol that marks the end of the festival.
This is also the day of Anant Chaturdashi, and it tends to be the most emotional part of the whole celebration. After days of treating Ganesha as an honored guest in the home, families perform one last elaborate puja, offer a final aarti, and then carry the idol, often in a procession filled with music and chants of "Ganpati Bappa Morya," to a river, lake, sea, or a bucket of water at home for immersion.
Symbolically, this is Ganesha's journey back to Mount Kailash to rejoin his parents, Shiva and Parvati, with a promise to return the following year. It's also a quiet nod to one of the festival's deeper lessons: that everything, even the divine as we picture it, is temporary.
Because Anant Chaturdashi draws such large public processions in cities like Mumbai and Pune, if you're planning to join a public immersion on September 25, it's worth heading out early or checking local timings, since routes and immersion sites can get crowded fast as the day goes on.
A Quick Reference Calendar
To sum it all up in one place:
September 14 (Monday): Ganesh Sthapana — installation and Pranapratishtha, muhurat 11:02 AM–1:31 PM
September 15 (Tuesday): 1.5-day Visarjan
September 16 (Wednesday): 3-day Visarjan
September 18 (Friday): 5-day Visarjan
September 20 (Sunday): 7-day Visarjan
September 25 (Friday): 10-day Visarjan / Anant Chaturdashi, the main, most widely observed immersion day
However you plan to celebrate, having these dates locked in ahead of time makes it so much easier to focus on what the festival is really about, welcoming Ganesha with devotion, and letting go with just as much heart when the time comes.