If you sell to Indian customers, the festival calendar is the most important content planning tool you have. Diwali week alone can do as much business as a normal month for some categories. The trick is preparing weeks in advance, not scrambling the week before. This guide covers Manva's built-in festival calendar.
What the calendar covers
Manva's festival calendar tracks 35+ Indian festivals across all major communities and regions:
- National — Republic Day, Independence Day, Gandhi Jayanti
- Hindu — Diwali, Holi, Raksha Bandhan, Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri, Janmashtami, Dussehra
- Regional — Pongal, Onam, Bihu, Ugadi, Gudi Padwa, Baisakhi, Lohri
- Muslim — Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Ramadan, Muharram
- Christian — Christmas, Easter, Good Friday
- Sikh — Guru Nanak Jayanti, Baisakhi
- Other — Mahavir Jayanti, Buddha Purnima
- Modern — Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, Friendship Day
Dates are pre-loaded for the next 12 months so you always know what is coming.
Step 1: Open the calendar
From the dashboard: Tools → Festival calendar (or Posts → Calendar → Festivals tab).
The default view is the next 90 days, with each festival shown as a coloured row. Click any festival to expand:
- Date — exact date this year (some festivals shift by lunar calendar)
- Region — pan-India or specific to a state/community
- Significance — one-paragraph explainer for context
- Caption ideas — 5 AI-generated captions in your Brand DNA voice
- Hashtag bundle — pre-built festival-specific tags
- Visual ideas — colour palette and imagery suggestions
- CTA suggestions — what to ask viewers to do (shop the festive collection, download a PDF, book a session, etc.)
Step 2: Pick which festivals to plan for
Not every festival fits every business. A bakery might plan for:
- Christmas (cake season)
- Valentine's Day (gift cakes)
- Diwali (sweet boxes)
- Friendship Day (themed cupcakes)
A jewellery boutique might plan for:
- Akshaya Tritiya (auspicious gold-buying day)
- Diwali (Dhanteras, Lakshmi puja)
- Karva Chauth (gift jewellery)
- Wedding season (October–February)
Tick the festivals that are relevant. Skip the rest. The calendar dims un-ticked festivals so the view stays focused.
Step 3: Schedule content for each
For each ticked festival, Manva auto-suggests a 4-post mini-campaign:
- Anticipation post — 7–10 days before (announce your festive collection or offer)
- Build-up post — 3 days before (showcase product, build urgency)
- Day-of post — the actual festival day (greeting + last-call CTA)
- Post-festival thank-you — 2 days after (thank customers, show photos of what they bought)
Click Schedule all 4 and Manva pre-fills the post composer with each one's caption, hashtags, suggested image type and recommended publish time. You edit and confirm; Manva queues them to auto-publish.
Step 4: Customise per festival
The default templates are starting points. For each post, customise:
- The image — your real product shot, your model, your team
- The caption tone — adjust if your audience is younger or more traditional
- The CTA — link to a specific landing page or campaign code
For festivals that span multiple days (Navratri, Eid, Diwali week), schedule a daily post. The calendar makes it a single 1-minute task per festival.
Step 5: Run festival-specific WhatsApp broadcasts
For your opt-in WhatsApp list, the calendar also offers a festival broadcast template:
- Pick the festival
- Pick the audience segment (everyone, or specific tags like "VIP customers", "wedding shoppers")
- Pick the template (Manva pre-builds festival-themed approved templates)
- Schedule for the morning of the festival
Festival WhatsApp broadcasts have the highest engagement of any send all year. Done well they convert at 10%+.
What to avoid
Generic festival posts. "Happy Diwali to all our customers" with a stock image is forgettable. Show your product styled for the festival, your team in festive attire, your customers using your product.
Late posting. Diwali day is too late to start your campaign. Begin 7–10 days before so anticipation builds.
Insensitive copy. Each festival has cultural and religious meaning. Manva's caption suggestions are reviewed for tone, but always read what you are about to publish. A poorly worded festival post can damage trust.
Ignoring regional festivals. If your customers are in Tamil Nadu, Pongal matters more than Diwali. If in Kerala, Onam. Localise.
A workable annual rhythm
A reasonable annual planning cadence:
- January — plan Pongal, Republic Day, Valentine's Day
- March–April — plan Holi, Akshaya Tritiya, Eid, Mother's Day
- July–August — plan Independence Day, Raksha Bandhan, Friendship Day, Janmashtami
- September–November — plan Ganesh Chaturthi, Onam, Navratri, Dussehra, Diwali
- December — plan Christmas + the year-end retrospective post
Each planning session takes 30–45 minutes and front-loads the next quarter.
Frequently asked questions
Are dates accurate every year? Yes — Manva auto-updates festival dates each year, accounting for lunar calendar shifts.
Can I add a festival the calendar does not include? Yes — use Add custom festival to create a date and template. Useful for community-specific or business-specific dates (founder's day, anniversary sales, etc.).
Do AI captions know about religious meaning? They are trained on Indian festival context. But always read before publishing — cultural nuance benefits from a human eye.
Can I plan a year out? Yes, the calendar shows the full next 12 months. Most large brands plan their festival calendar in January for the year.
The festival calendar is the single highest-leverage scheduling tool for an Indian business. Most engagement, most sales, most word-of-mouth happens in festival weeks. Plan early, post consistently, and the festivals do the heavy lifting for you.