Travel Guide

Nabanna 2026: Bengal Harvest Festival Date, Rituals, Food

Nabanna 2026 falls on the first day of Agrahayan: 16 Nov in Bangladesh, 17 or 18 Nov in West Bengal. See rituals, new rice food, fairs and why dates differ.

Ayush Pandey November 6, 2026 · 15 min read

Nabanna 2026: Bengal Harvest Festival Date, Rituals, Food

Nabanna (also spelled Nabanno, Navanna or Nobanno) is the Bengali harvest festival of the new rice. The word comes from naba, meaning new, and anna, meaning grain or food. It belongs to Agrahayan, the Bengali month of the main rice harvest, and it is celebrated in West Bengal, Bangladesh, Tripura and Bengali homes abroad. This guide explains the 2026 date and why it differs between West Bengal and Bangladesh, what the rituals are, what is cooked, where fairs are held, and how to plan a trip. We checked encyclopaedias, Bangladeshi and Indian news reports and almanac sites up to 6 November 2026, and we mark every point where the sources disagree.

Quick Answer: Nabanna 2026

Nabanna 2026 falls on the first day of Agrahayan, in mid-November. Bangladesh press has reported 16 November in earlier years. West Bengal almanacs show 17 or 18 November 2026, after the Sun enters Scorpio on the evening of 16 November. Village dates vary. The core rite is offering freshly harvested rice, usually as payesh or pithe.

Item	2026	Status
Meaning	Naba (new) plus anna (grain)	Zee News, Wikipedia
Bangladesh date	Reported as 16 November in earlier years	Daily Star 2019, Ittefaq 2022. Confirm 2026 with the organisers
West Bengal almanac date	Agrahayan 1 on 17 or 18 November	Sources differ, see below
Sun enters Scorpio	16 Nov, about 7:35 to 7:45 PM IST	Calculated by us, matches an astrology site
Season and month	Hemanta, Agrahayan (eighth month)	Wikipedia
Offering	Payesh or porridge from new rice	Telegraph India, Financial Express
Village dates	Vary by village and family	Telegraph India (East Burdwan)

Nabanna 2026 Date: Why Sources Disagree

Nabanna is tied to a month, not to a tithi, so the date depends on which Bengali calendar you follow. Most festival pages list one date and do not explain this, which is the main gap we found.

West Bengal and India

The West Bengal calendar follows the Sun's movement through the zodiac. A Bengali month begins after the Sun enters the next sign. The Sun enters Scorpio (Vrishchika Sankranti) on 16 November 2026. We calculated about 7:35 PM IST using the Lahiri ayanamsa, and an astrology site gives 7:45 PM. Different almanacs differ by a few minutes, which is normal.

One Bengali calendar page shows Kartik ending on 17 November and Agrahayan starting on 18 November 2026. An astrology site gives 17 November. We could not check a printed West Bengal almanac, so we do not claim a single date. If your family or temple follows a local almanac, use its date.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh uses a revised calendar with fixed month lengths. The national Nabanna Utsab has been reported on the first day of Agrahayan, which the Daily Star gave as Saturday 16 November 2019 and Ittefaq gave as 16 November 2022. Wikipedia says the Dhaka event is organised by the Jatiya Nabanna Utshab Udjapan Parshad, which it says has held it since 1998. For 2026, confirm the date with the committee before you travel.

Villages Set Their Own Day

Telegraph India reports that in East Burdwan and nearby districts the festival begins on the first day of Agrahayan and runs to Poush Sankranti, roughly two months. It says there is no fixed date and that the day follows the Nabanna offering to the local deity or the family custom. A second "Bashi Nabanna" follows with rice a day or more old, and a farmers' feast comes the next day.

City	Sun enters Scorpio (about 7:40 PM IST on 16 Nov)
Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai (IST)	16 Nov, about 7:40 PM
Dhaka	16 Nov, about 8:10 PM
Dubai	16 Nov, about 6:10 PM
London	16 Nov, about 2:10 PM
New York, Toronto	16 Nov, about 9:10 AM
Singapore	16 Nov, about 10:10 PM
Sydney, Melbourne	17 Nov, about 1:10 AM

These times are our conversion from the IST value. They matter only if you want to mark the Sankranti moment. For the festival itself, pick the day your family or community follows.

What Nabanna Means

Zee News explains the word as naba (new) and anna (grain), so "new rice". It describes the festival as a celebration of the paddy harvest and a wish for good crops and prosperity. Wikipedia glosses it as "new feast". The festival marks the aman harvest, the main rice crop of the year, which Wikipedia places in Agrahayan during the Hemanta season.

Do not confuse the festival with the Nabanna building in Howrah, the West Bengal state secretariat, which shares the name. The same word is also the title of Bijon Bhattacharya's 1943 play for the Indian People's Theatre Association, set in the Bengal famine. Wikipedia and a Kolkata theatre listing both describe the play. A staging of it was listed at Uttarpara for 10 April 2026.

How Nabanna Is Celebrated: Rituals

Practices differ across Bengal. The points below are those that at least one source we checked states. Where only one source reports a custom, we say so.

First cutting and husking. Telegraph India says a portion of the first aman paddy is husked with a pedal press and powdered with a mortar and pestle.
Offering to Lakshmi. The Financial Express says Bengali Hindus offered Lakshmi a special dish from rice husked from selected sheaves. The Paramparaproject page quotes a folk saying that new rice is not eaten until Lakshmi receives it first. We treat this as a single-source folk custom.
Offering to the household deity. Telegraph India says payesh of the new rice powder, milk and coconut is offered to the household deity and also placed on banana leaves in the cowshed, kitchen and other auspicious spots.
Ancestors. The Financial Express says families offered prayers to ancestors with newly harvested rice, sweetened or served with curries. Paramparaproject adds that some families also give offerings to local deities.
Crows and the storehouse. Paramparaproject lists rice offered to crows, worship of the golaghor (grain store) and lamps for the moon. These are single-source details, so confirm them with the family before you copy them.
The shared meal. The festival ends in a feast. Telegraph India says pithe-puli made from leftover rice flour is shared with neighbours and friends.

Telegraph India notes that Hindu and Muslim families both take part in village celebrations, and the Financial Express says people of all faiths and castes joined because the harvest was vital to survival.

Nabanna Food: What Is Cooked

Dish	What it is	Source
Payesh	Rice, milk and coconut pudding, offered first	Telegraph India
Pithe-puli	Rice dumplings with milk, rice flour, date palm jaggery and coconut	Zee News, Telegraph India
Patisapta	Rice flour crepe with a sweet filling	Telegraph India, Wikipedia
Chitoi pithe, soru-chakli, pakkan pitha	Winter rice cakes	Telegraph India
Khoi	Popped rice added to the Nabanna offering	Zee News
Nolen gur and khejur	Date palm jaggery and dates	Telegraph India
Jilipipi	Sweet listed at the Dhaka fair	Wikipedia
Chittagong new rice drink	New rice with green coconut water	Zee News

The Financial Express says that in the past up to forty dishes could be cooked for a lavish Nabanna meal, with curries served alongside the new rice. Some village feasts include meat and date palm liquor, according to Telegraph India. This is an old agrarian custom, and we mention it only to describe the source.

A Simple Nabanna Menu at Home

Payesh with new rice (gobindobhog or any fresh rice), milk, coconut and a little jaggery
A plate of fried winter vegetables (bhaja)
Plain steamed rice with ghee, dal and a vegetable
Patisapta or coconut pithe
Fruit and sandesh, as in the village offering

If you cook for a puja at home, offer first, eat after, and keep the first serving aside for the household shrine.

Where Nabanna Fairs and Events Are Held

Fairs and programmes use the Nabanna name in several places. Check dates directly, because some events are not in November.

Place	What is reported	Date note
Dhaka (Shilpakala Academy)	Folk songs, Lalon songs, Tagore songs, recitation, dance, pitha stalls, organised by the Jatiya Nabanna Utsab Udjapan Parishad	Ittefaq 2022 and Daily Star 2019 reports. Confirm 2026 locally
Dhaka University Fine Arts faculty	Rural songs, dance and indigenous sports, as part of a revival effort	Financial Express, no date given
Howrah, West Bengal	Nabanna mela with pithe-making contest, art camp, rural handicraft stalls, baul, chhau and jatra	Wikipedia, no 2026 date given
Santiniketan	Nabanna Fair by the Suresh-Amiya Memorial Trust, handicrafts and folk music	Listed for 27 Feb to 9 Mar 2026, so it is already over this year
Uttarpara, Kolkata	Nabanna, the IPTA play	Listed for 10 Apr 2026, not a harvest event

The Santiniketan fair and the stage play are not held in the harvest season. Do not plan a November trip around them.

History and Why the Festival Changed

The Financial Express says the festival has declined as crop patterns changed. Traditional aman, aus and deegha paddies are no longer grown in many parts of Bangladesh, and hybrid varieties ripen at different times. A committee in Dhaka has run programmes for about a decade to revive it, and the author suggests fairs, kabi gan and jatra. Telegraph India reports that in West Bengal the village dates now differ even within a large village.

For readers, this means the festival is often held as a cultural programme, a family puja or a community meal, not on a single day in every village.

Nabanna in Kolkata and Cities

Telegraph India says Poush Utsav events are organised across Bengal and that the celebrations have spread to Kolkata and beyond. In a city, the usual form is a family payesh and pithe at home, a cultural programme at a club or school, or a fair. For Kolkata's larger festival season see our Kolkata Diwali guide and Chhath Puja 2026 guide, both held in the same month.

For Bengali Families Abroad

Use the city table above if you want the Sankranti moment, but most families in the UK, the USA, Canada, the Gulf, Singapore and Australia hold a Nabanna lunch on the nearest weekend. Ask your local Bengali association, since some hold an Agrahayan programme or a pithe fair. You can make payesh with any fresh rice and keep the same order: offer first, share after.

Travelling for Nabanna: A Plan

Decide which Nabanna you want: a village harvest celebration, a Dhaka cultural programme or a family meal in Kolkata.
Confirm the date with the host family, the committee or the local club. Do not rely on one almanac page.
If you visit a village, reach the district town a day early and ask the family about the day they follow.
Carry cash, since small village stalls may not take cards.
Bring light woollens. Hemanta mornings are cool, and the Sun sets early in November.
Keep a spare day, because rural events can shift.

Getting There

Most West Bengal trips start in Kolkata. Our airport pickup, railway pickup and cab services cover the transfer. If you come from Ayodhya or Uttar Pradesh, read how to travel between Kolkata and Ayodhya and our Kolkata to Ayodhya package.

Plan Your Bengal Trip with Your Travel Partner

Your Travel Partner is a travel company based in Ayodhya that arranges trips across India and abroad. We plan the road, the stay and the timing around a festival, for visitors from every state and from other countries.

Airport or railway pickup in Kolkata: airport and railway.
City and village transfers: cab and intercity cab.
Rooms: hotel booking.
A trip that links Bengal with other states: custom package.
Send your dates, city and group size on WhatsApp or the enquiry form.

We do not sell festival tickets or passes. See the packages page, our reviews, about us and the cancellation policy.

Common Mistakes

Treating one website's date as the only date. West Bengal and Bangladesh differ.
Planning a November trip around the Santiniketan fair, which was listed for February and March.
Mixing up the festival with the Nabanna secretariat building or the 1943 play.
Expecting one fixed day in every village.
Copying a ritual from a single source without asking the family.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is Nabanna 2026?

Mid-November 2026, on or around the first day of Agrahayan. Bangladesh press has reported 16 November in earlier years, and West Bengal almanacs show 17 or 18 November 2026. Village dates differ.

What does Nabanna mean?

New rice. It comes from naba (new) and anna (grain or food), according to Zee News.

Why do West Bengal and Bangladesh have different dates?

West Bengal follows a calendar tied to the Sun's entry into a zodiac sign, and Bangladesh uses a revised calendar with fixed month lengths.

When does the Sun enter Scorpio in 2026?

On 16 November, about 7:35 to 7:45 PM IST, according to our calculation and an astrology site.

Which Bengali month is Nabanna in?

Agrahayan, the eighth month, in the Hemanta season, according to Wikipedia.

What is offered at Nabanna?

Payesh or porridge from freshly harvested rice, with milk, coconut and jaggery, offered to the household deity or to Lakshmi first.

Is Lakshmi worshipped at Nabanna?

Yes, according to the Financial Express and Zee News. Some families also make offerings to ancestors and local deities.

What food is made at Nabanna?

Payesh, pithe-puli, patisapta, chitoi pithe, khoi, nolen gur and dates, with rice and many curries.

Do Muslims celebrate Nabanna?

Telegraph India reports that Hindu and Muslim families both take part, and the Financial Express says all faiths and castes joined.

How long does Nabanna last?

In parts of East Burdwan it runs from the first day of Agrahayan to Poush Sankranti, about two months, according to Telegraph India.

What is Bashi Nabanna?

A second celebration with rice a day or more old, followed by a farmers' feast, according to Telegraph India.

Where is the national Nabanna Utsab held in Bangladesh?

Reports from 2019 and 2022 place the Dhaka programme at the Shilpakala Academy, organised by the Jatiya Nabanna Utsab Udjapan Parishad.

Is the Santiniketan Nabanna Fair in November?

No. A listing gives 27 February to 9 March 2026, so it was already over this year.

Is Nabanna the same as the Nabanna building in Howrah?

No. The secretariat shares the name, but the festival is the new rice harvest celebration.

Can Your Travel Partner arrange my Bengal trip?

Yes. We arrange pickups, cabs and hotels. We do not sell festival tickets or passes.

Conclusion

Nabanna 2026 is the first day of Agrahayan, which is 16 November in Bangladesh press reports and 17 or 18 November in West Bengal almanacs, with village dates that vary. The core of the festival is simple: new rice, first offered, then shared. Confirm your date locally, plan a spare day and book transfers early. For cabs, hotels and a Bengal plan, message us on WhatsApp.