The Ardh Kumbh returns to Haridwar in 2027. We are based in Kankhal, ten minutes from Har Ki Pauri, and we have worked every Haridwar mela since 2010 — here are the announced dates, what is still to be notified, and how to plan around both.
| Date | Occasion | Snan |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday | Makar Sankranti | Opening snan |
| Saturday | Mauni Amavasya | Main snan |
| Thursday | Basant Panchami | Main snan |
| Saturday | Magh Purnima | Main snan |
| Saturday | Maha Shivratri | First Amrit Snan |
| Monday | Somvati Amavasya | Second Amrit Snan |
| Wednesday | Nav Samvatsar | Main snan |
| Wednesday | Mesh Sankranti (Baisakhi) | Third Amrit Snan |
| Thursday | Ram Navami | Main snan |
| Tuesday | Chaitra Purnima | Closing snan; reported as a fourth Amrit Snan |
The Uttarakhand government announced the 2027 bathing calendar on 28 November 2025, after the Chief Minister met representatives of all 13 akharas: the mela runs from 14 January to 20 April 2027, with ten main snan days and Amrit Snans on Maha Shivratri, Somvati Amavasya and Mesh Sankranti. These are the announced dates. The Mela administration's gazette notification usually follows closer to the mela, and a date can occasionally move by a day for astronomical reasons.
Plan around these dates, but keep train and hotel bookings refundable until the notification. Tell us your travel window and we will confirm the notified dates to you the day they are published.
Haridwar is one of the four cities that host the Kumbh Mela, which returns to each in a twelve-year cycle. Haridwar and Prayagraj additionally hold an Ardh Kumbh — a 'half Kumbh' — six years into that cycle. Haridwar's last full Kumbh Mela was held in 2021, which places the next Ardh Kumbh in 2027.
The Kumbh Mela is the largest periodic gathering of people anywhere in the world. It rotates between four cities on the rivers — Haridwar, Prayagraj, Nashik and Ujjain — returning to each once in roughly twelve years. Haridwar and Prayagraj also mark the midpoint of that cycle with an Ardh Kumbh, a half Kumbh held six years on.
The occasion rests on the story of the churning of the ocean, in which drops of amrit, the nectar of immortality, fell at these four places. At Haridwar the drop is said to have fallen at Brahma Kund, the section of Har Ki Pauri where pilgrims still take their dip today. Bathing there on an auspicious day is the heart of the whole event.
What a visitor actually sees is two things at once: an immense, densely crowded public gathering, and a sequence of very old rituals — the akharas processing to the water in order of precedence, the evening aarti, the lamps going downstream at dusk. It is demanding and it is extraordinary, often within the same hour.
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Six ways to attend, each with its transport, stay basis, inclusions and exclusions set out in full — and a quotation process with no headline price you later discover was not the real one.
What to see in Haridwar, what each place actually is, and how to reach it — including honest notes on access, crowds and the things that change during a mela.
The practical side: how to get there, what it is physically like, what to bring, how to stay safe in very large crowds, and which official sources to check before you travel.
Four tried itineraries, a vehicle sized to your group and a driver who knows which approach road is open today. Available year round, not only during the mela.
Clear English guidance for travellers arriving from outside India — visas through the official government portal, arrival and transfers, etiquette, health, and an honest account of what a mela is like.