Govardhan Puja is the one day of the year when the deity is not a carved murti but a hill — a small Govardhan shaped from cow dung, ringed with flowers and topped with a figure of Krishna. It is named for the mountain the young Krishna once lifted: when Braj stopped its annual sacrifice to Indra on Krishna's word and honoured Govardhan hill instead, the slighted rain-god loosed a week-long deluge, and Krishna held the whole mountain up on the little finger of his left hand as an umbrella over the village. Raising a hill each year, and heaping food before it, is how that shelter is repaid.
The offering is itself the point. The Annakut, a "mountain of food", is a spread of 56 (chhappan bhog) or 108 dishes cooked at home and set before the hill all at once, after which the family walks the parikrama around it. The date carries an honest wrinkle in 2026: Govardhan Puja usually follows Diwali the very next day, but this year it falls on Tuesday 10 November — two days after the main Diwali night — because the Kartika amavasya stretched across 9 November and pushed Shukla Pratipada to the 10th. The same tithi also wears three other names: Annakut, Bali Pratipada, and, in Gujarat, Bestu Varas, the new year.
Govardhan Puja 2026 at a glance
Festival day
Tue, 10 November 2026
Tithi
Kartika Shukla Pratipada
Puja time
Pratahkal (morning)
Pratipada until
2:01 PM, 10 November
Annakut bhog
56 or 108 dishes
Also
Bali Pratipada · Gujarati New Year
Date, puja time and the day's other names
Kartika Shukla Pratipada — and why it is two days after Diwali this year
Govardhan Puja
Tue, 10 November 2026
Pratahkal (morning) puja · Pratipada until 2:01 PM
Also known as
Annakut · Bali Pratipada
Gujarati New Year (Bestu Varas) · Dyuta Krida
Govardhan Puja is fixed to Kartika Shukla Pratipada, the first tithi of the bright fortnight — normally the morning after Diwali. In 2026 the preceding amavasya carried across 9 November, so Pratipada only begins that night and stays current through the morning of Tuesday 10 November, until about 2:01 PM. That is why the puja lands two days after the main Diwali night this year rather than the next. The bhog and parikrama are kept in the pratahkal, the morning window; households who cannot gather early keep a sayankal, an evening puja, instead. The same tithi is also Bali Pratipada, honouring King Bali's yearly return, and the first day of the new Vikram Samvat year in Gujarat.
How the puja is kept
The cow-dung Govardhan, the Annakut, the parikrama
The deity of the day is not a murti but a hill. Families shape a small Govardhan from cow dung — a low mound, often topped with a figure of Krishna, studded with flowers and given twigs to stand for the trees of Braj. Around and over it is heaped the Annakut, the "mountain of food": 56 (chhappan bhog) or 108 dishes — pulses, rice, puris, sweets and the season's vegetables — cooked at home and offered all together, without anyone tasting them first. After the offering and aarti, the family walks the parikrama, circling the little hill clockwise while singing Govardhan's praises, the same round the pilgrims of Braj walk about the real hill near Mathura. The food is then shared as prasad, and in many homes the cattle are honoured on this day too.
The hill Krishna lifted — and the day's other faces
Krishna and Indra, Bali Pratipada, and the Gujarati new year
The katha is the heart of the day. The cowherds of Braj kept an annual sacrifice to Indra, the rain-god, for their pastures. The young Krishna argued that it was Govardhan hill and its forest that truly fed the cattle, and told them to worship the hill instead. Slighted, Indra loosed a week of torrential rain to drown Vraj. Krishna lifted the whole of Govardhan on the little finger of his left hand and held it aloft like an umbrella, and for seven days and nights the people and their cattle sheltered beneath it until Indra relented and bowed. Raising a hill of food and cow dung each year, and walking around it, is how that shelter is remembered — gratitude to the land that feeds. The same Pratipada wears other faces across India: as Bali Pratipada it marks the day the demon-king Bali, sent to the netherworld by Vishnu's Vamana avatar, is allowed back to visit his people; in Gujarat it is Bestu Varas, the first day of the new Vikram Samvat year, greeted with "Saal Mubarak"; and the dice-play some keep, Dyuta Krida, recalls Shiva and Parvati at their game.
See the panchang and choghadiya for your city on 10 November
Pratipada is current through the morning of the 10th, until about 2:01 PM. For your own city's sunrise, tithi and the day's auspicious choghadiya, open the live panchang.
Govardhan Puja 2026 — your questions
Date, the Diwali gap, Annakut, vidhi and the katha