Autumn is the season Delhi is usually recommended for, and it is also when two unrelated systems can interfere with a trip at short notice. One is the festival calendar, which closes banks and offices on dates that vary by state. The other is an air quality regime that changes restrictions day by day.
Neither is a reason to avoid the city. Both are reasons to check specific dates before booking, and this guide gives what is officially notified for 2026.
Holidays are notified per region, not nationally
India's bank holidays are issued under the Negotiable Instruments Act by Reserve Bank regional office, and the Reserve Bank publishes a separate list for each of 34 offices. The variation is not cosmetic.
For November 2026, Patna's entire list under the Act is one date: 16 November, Chhath Puja. New Delhi's entire list is one date: 24 November, Guru Nanak Jayanti. The two offices share no November holiday at all.
Delhi's full 2026 list under the Act runs to sixteen dates: Republic Day on 26 January, Holi on 4 March, Ramzan-Id on 21 March, Mahavir Jayanti on 31 March, bank accounts closing on 1 April, Good Friday on 3 April, Ambedkar Jayanti on 14 April, Buddha Purnima and May Day on 1 May, Bakri Id on 28 May, Muharram on 26 June, Independence Day on 15 August, Id-e-Milad on 26 August, Gandhi Jayanti on 2 October, Dussehra on 20 October, Guru Nanak Jayanti on 24 November and Christmas on 25 December.
The 2026 disruption window in order
Reading the all-India matrix for October and November gives the shape of the season.
| Dates 2026 | What is observed |
|---|---|
| 17 October | Maha Saptami |
| 19 to 23 October | Durga Puja, Dussehra, Vijaya Dashami across regions |
| 26 October | Laxmi Puja, Maharishi Valmiki's Birthday |
| 29 October | Karva Chauth |
| 9 to 11 November | Diwali, Govardhan Puja, Bhai Dooj |
| 16 November | Chhath Puja |
| 24 November | Guru Nanak Jayanti |
The practical reading for a visitor based in Delhi: a month in which offices, banks and services close on scattered days, intercity transport fills twice, and the second filling — Chhath — is the one that empties the city towards Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Booking trains through it
Indian Railways' Tatkal quota is the mechanism for short-notice booking and its timings are fixed. Booking opens at 10:00 for air-conditioned classes and 11:00 for non-air-conditioned classes, one day in advance of the date of journey excluding that date, timed from the train's originating station. Agents are locked out for the first ten minutes of each window, and of the 08:00 advance-reservation opening.
Tatkal charges are 10 percent of basic fare for second class and 30 percent for other classes, within published floors and ceilings — from Rs 10 to 15 for second sitting up to Rs 400 to 500 for executive class. The Railways state these charges are levied uniformly in peak and non-peak periods, so festival weeks do not surcharge the quota.
The trade-off is refundability. No refund is granted on cancellation of a confirmed Tatkal ticket except in narrow circumstances, and name changes are not permitted. A full refund of fare and Tatkal charge applies if the train is delayed more than three hours at your originating point.
How the air quality regime works
The Commission for Air Quality Management administers the Graded Response Action Plan for Delhi and the National Capital Region. The operative document is the revised schedule of 21 November 2025. Four stages are triggered by air quality index bands, which the Commission states in the title of every invocation order.
Stage I covers AQI 201 to 300 and brings dust mitigation at construction sites, regular waste lifting with a ban on open burning, and mechanised road sweeping with water sprinkling.
Stage II covers 301 to 400 and adds higher parking fees to discourage private vehicles, strict regulation of diesel generator sets, and staggered timings for public offices.
Stage III covers 401 to 450 and restricts construction and demolition, restricts older petrol and diesel cars and goods vehicles, and shifts school classes to hybrid mode.
Stage IV applies at 450 and above, adding an advisory for closure of educational institutions and non-emergency commercial activity, and restricting entry of older trucks and heavy goods vehicles into Delhi.
The Commission's order history also shows the regime operating outside winter: Stage I was invoked on 16 April 2026 and again on 19 May 2026, revoked in each case within weeks.
How to plan around both
Book intercity transport well before the Dussehra and Diwali clusters rather than relying on Tatkal, since the quota opens the day before and festival demand exhausts it quickly. Treat 16 November 2026 as the hardest single day to leave Delhi by train.
Keep outdoor commitments in the second half of autumn provisional, and check the Commission's current stage rather than a forecast, since the stage is what determines whether venues and schools are operating.
Assume banks and government offices will be closed on scattered days rather than a predictable block, and that the pattern in Delhi differs from the one in whichever state you travel on to.
What this guide does not cover
The Government of India's Gazetted and Restricted Holiday lists for 2026 and 2027 are absent. The Department of Personnel and Training's site was unreachable for this guide, and the Restricted Holidays concept is defined only in its own memoranda. The dates above are bank holidays under the Negotiable Instruments Act, which is a different legal instrument and should not be read as the gazetted list.
No 2027 dates appear anywhere in this guide. The Reserve Bank's year selector stops at 2026 and no 2027 notification was obtainable.
Firecracker restrictions in Delhi around Diwali are not stated. Delhi Pollution Control Committee and Delhi government sites were unreachable, and the Commission's document search returned no results for firecrackers, crackers or Diwali. The relevant Supreme Court matter is Writ Petition (Civil) No. 13029 of 1985, M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, which the Commission has issued compliance orders under, but those documents could not be read.
Festival special trains for Diwali and Chhath could not be verified; Indian Railways' own domain was unreachable.
The advance reservation period in days is not stated, only that booking opens at 08:00, because no reachable official page gives the number of days.
The Graded Response Action Plan's full schedule text could not be retrieved. The stage measures above are the Commission's own published summaries rather than the schedule itself.
The Tatkal page carries no publication date and its fare table is headed for journeys from 24 December 2015 onwards, so confirm charges before relying on them.