Festival packaging calendar 2027: dates and when to order stock

Every year, the same thing happens in the week before Diwali. Sellers who planned their products well run out of tape, wrap or boxes, and they pay for it with delayed orders.

Packaging is cheap. Running out of it is not.

So here is the 2027 calendar I would pin above my packing table. The short answer: Diwali is on Friday, 29 October 2027, and Durga Puja, Karwa Chauth and Diwali all fall within the same 24 days of October. That makes October 2027 one long peak, not three small ones. Order your main festive packaging by mid-September.

All dates below are from the Government of India's list of holidays for 2027 (DoPT Office Memorandum of 16 July 2026), cross-checked with the Drik Panchang 2027 calendar. Where the two differ, I have said so.

What are the main festival dates in 2027?

Festival	2027 date	Order packaging by (my suggestion)
Lohri, Makar Sankranti, Pongal	14 to 15 January	Mid-December 2026
Valentine's Day	Sunday, 14 February	15 January
Eid ul-Fitr	Wednesday, 10 March (moon sighting)	Early February
Holi	22 or 23 March (see note)	20 February
Mother's Day	Sunday, 9 May	10 April
Eid ul-Adha (Bakrid)	Monday, 17 May (moon sighting)	Mid-April
Father's Day	Sunday, 20 June	20 May
Raksha Bandhan	Tuesday, 17 August	5 July
Janmashtami	Wednesday, 25 August	25 July
Ganesh Chaturthi	Saturday, 4 September	1 August
Onam (Thiruvonam)	Sunday, 12 September	10 August
Navratri begins	Thursday, 30 September	25 August
Durga Puja (Saptami to Dashami)	6 to 9 October	1 September
Dussehra	Saturday, 9 October	1 September
Karwa Chauth	Monday, 18 October	10 September
Dhanteras	Wednesday, 27 October	15 September
Diwali (Lakshmi Puja)	Friday, 29 October	15 September, top up by 5 October
Bhai Dooj	Sunday, 31 October	15 September
Chhath Puja	Thursday, 4 November	25 September
Guru Nanak Jayanti	Sunday, 14 November	10 October
Christmas	Saturday, 25 December	20 November
New Year 2028	Saturday, 1 January 2028	25 November

Three dates need care:

Holi. The DoPT list has Holi on Tuesday, 23 March, and Holika Dahan on 22 March. Drik Panchang has Holi on Monday, 22 March. Plan for the earlier date.
Makar Sankranti. DoPT lists 14 January, Drik Panchang 15 January.
Both Eids depend on the moon, and the DoPT list itself says such dates can change.

Dates can also differ by state. If most of your buyers are in one region, check that state's own list.

How did I work out the "order by" dates?

The "order by" column is my advice, not a rule. I counted back from the festival like this:

Your last safe dispatch date is about 7 to 10 days before the festival for orders going to smaller towns. Couriers get slow in festival weeks.
Your busiest packing days are the two weeks before that.
Your packaging should be on your shelf before those busy days start, with a week to spare.

We dispatch PackSmith orders in 1 to 2 working days, with free delivery across India. Even so, I would not let any seller plan on the last week.

Transit times stretch for everybody in October, including for us.

Printed packaging takes longer than stock items. If you want logo tape for Diwali, ask us in July, not September. Our guide to custom logo packing tape explains the process.

What should I stock for the October to November peak?

This is the peak that decides most sellers' year.

In 2027, Navratri starts on 30 September and Bhai Dooj is on 31 October, so your festive orders run for a full month without a break.

For gift hampers, sweets and home decor, I would stock:

Brown packing tape. A carton sealed with one strip on top and one on the bottom uses roughly 0.9 m of tape, so a 65 m roll seals about 70 such boxes. Our brown packing tape comes in sets of 6 and 12.
Honeycomb paper for glass, diyas and ceramics. It comes in seven colours, which helps with festive boxes. Our honeycomb paper roll is 390 mm wide, 10 m or 100 m long.
Void fill or crinkle paper for the gaps. Crinkle paper looks better in a hamper, but it is not real protection.
Veg marking tape if you sell sweets or food. Our veg marking tape is 1 inch x 35 m.

I have written a full method for hampers in our Diwali gift hamper packing guide. The steps work for any 2027 festival box. For a week-by-week stock plan for the Diwali peak, see our Diwali 2027 packaging stock plan.

Why is Raksha Bandhan packaging different?

There are two reasons.

Rakhi orders are small and light, and they travel in the monsoon.

Raksha Bandhan is on 17 August 2027, and most rakhis must reach a brother in another city, or another country, before that. So the real deadline is late July. For a rakhi with a small gift, a padded paper mailer works well. The M1 size is 6 x 9 inch. Shipping dates and packing steps for Rakhi are in our Rakhi 2027 shipping and packing guide.

Here is my honest limit.

Paper mailers do not like rain. If your orders go to places with heavy rain in August, a plastic courier bag is safer. Our paper mailer vs courier bag guide explains when each one wins.

When is the wedding season in 2027?

As per the Drik Panchang list of 2027 marriage dates, May has the most dates (18), then June (16), then February (13) and November (11). It shows no wedding dates from mid-July to 9 November, because of Chaturmas. Weddings start again from 10 November.

For gifting and trousseau sellers, this means two packing peaks: April to June, and mid-November to mid-December. The second peak sits right on top of Christmas orders.

For return gifts and trousseau boxes, I would keep honeycomb paper in wedding colours (red and yellow are traditional) and brown tape in bulk. The 2 inch x 300 m brown tape suits sellers who seal many boxes a day, because you change rolls far less often than with 65 m rolls.

Which festival dates do sellers usually forget?

In my experience, these three:

Valentine's Day falls on a Sunday in 2027. Gifts must arrive by Friday, 12 February, so your real deadline is the week before.
Mother's Day is on 9 May, right in the wedding peak. Order wrap for both together.
Christmas is on a Saturday. Corporate gifts must reach offices by Friday, 24 December at the latest, and many teams leave early that week.

The online sale dates are another matter. Each marketplace announces its own sale, and we do not know those dates in advance. PackSmith is not affiliated with any marketplace. Keep two weeks of extra stock from August onwards so a sale announcement does not catch you short.

Questions sellers ask us

How much extra packaging should I buy for Diwali?

Look at your orders from last year's festive month and compare them with a normal month. Buy packaging for that ratio, plus about 15% spare. Tape and paper keep well if stored dry and out of direct sun, so leftover stock is not wasted.

Is it better to buy all my festive packaging at once?

For tape and paper, buying in one go saves effort. Check the per-unit price on each listing, because a bigger pack may work out cheaper per roll or per sheet. For anything printed or seasonal, such as coloured honeycomb paper, buy only what you are sure to use.

Can I get a sample before the festive season?

Yes. Our sample pack lets you test a tape, a courier bag or a paper wrap on real orders. Do it in August, not in October.

Put these dates in your phone today. Then send us your expected festive orders through our contact page, and we will help you work out how much tape and wrap to keep ready.