41/ 100 Bunting Dog
Avoiding the Holidays in India
Our last two visits to Varanasi we accidentally ended up coinciding our trip with the religious Mela festivals. In 2019 it was one of the ardha-melas (half melas held midway through the 12 year cycle) but this year, in 2025, it was the big daddy of all melas – the twelfth, twelve-yearly, Kumbh Mela that occurs every 144 years. Suffice to say it bought with it a good deal of chaos and made getting about Varanasi pretty tricky. There’s more to come about that later.
We have already decided that we will be returning to India, and probably festival-crazy Varanasi, in January 2026. January is a good month for us to go. My wedding and elopement photography business is out of action that month and the weather here in Scotland is the bleakest, darkest and coldest you could imagine. Coupled with the fact that it is winter in India, and therefore not roasting hot or pouring with rain, it makes perfect sense to scoot off ASAP after the New Year celebrations have finished and tax returns have been submitted.
As we have a lot of flexibility with dates I have been scrutinising the calendar to pick a period of time that avoids any holidays as we have had our fair share of festival induced delays and travel woes. The problem is that India LOVES its holidays and festivals. There is barely a week of the year that doesn’t have an important date.
According to the Times of India, in the Hindu calendar alone there were 20 significant Hindu dates in January 2025. In February there are 23! Clearly avoiding traveling on public holidays is going to be out of the question.
Obviously not all the dates are as significant as others. In January the ones to watch out for are Lohri, Makar Sankranti / Pongal and the Kumbh Mela (although that one won’t be on again until 2031 so we are safe for now). Makar Sankranti is a particularly fun festival with just the right amount of craziness with a bit of feasting, some fires, fireworks and, of course, the famous kite-flying extravaganza. One festival I will avoid like the plague is Holi – getting covered in powdery dye is my idea of hell.
I think that we will actually aim to be in Varanasi next year in time for Makar Sankranti as it is a great place to see the kites flying lazily over the Ganges, before they get caught in the trees and strangle a bird. We will just be sure to avoid actually traveling on the date itself…
Of course, don’t forget that India is a huge melting-pot of religions so you have to factor in all the Islamic, Sikh, Jewish, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Jain and Christian observances too. The Indian people seem to love a party and are not fussy about whose holiday it is. They happily celebrate a bit of Christmas and Easter, especially if it means they get some chocolate.
I was once walking down a road in Delhi on the 14th of February when a young man walked up to me, shook my hand and wished Fiona and I a Happy Valentine’s Day. It was lovely.
