Indian festivals

It is natural that a country such as India with her cultural, ethnic and religous diversity will have lots of holidays! Which is good and not so good - from a business perspective.

It's good as they say almost every week there is a holiday somewhere and hence the opportunity to get some R&R in between doing deals.

Take for instance holidays that are anchored on religion (remember that she is a secular country by constitution and practice) - there are the Hindu festivals of Diwali, Makar Sankranti, Ganesh Chaturthi, Holi, Dussehra and then the Islamic festivals of Eid ul-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Mawlid an-Nabī and even Muharram (which is mourning for the Prophet Muhammad's grandson).

Then there are the Sikh festivals of Guru Nanak Jayanti and of course Christmas and Good Friday and finally the Jain festivals of Mahavir Jayanti.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. It is just that turning up in a city/region which happens to have a holiday (like Wellington on the 25th January) while other parts of the country are working can be quite dissapointing.

Even more interesting is that notion of "restricted holidays" - where indivduals can choose to take a few from a list while their organisation is open - knowing about the person(s) your dealing with is useful to avoid this little trap.

The good news is that there is an excellent and comprehensive calendar published by the government on their government portal - the link below.

Well, here is hoping that the this information enables you to plan your business trips carefully for business and R&R.

We travel to India frequently and are happy to share our experiences, note we do NOT provide any kind of travel or tourism services for India or New Zealand, let us know if we can help.