45th Jersey City Durga Puja 2026 at Dickinson High School

Garden State Puja Committee is holding its 45th Jersey City Durga Puja Friday through Sunday, October 16–18, 2026, at William L. Dickinson High School, 2 Palisade Avenue.

GSPC started in 1981. This is a registered community weekend in a high-school auditorium and cafeteria, a short walk from India Square. Dickinson itself is the 1906 Beaux Arts public school on Bergen Hill, the one that looks down toward the harbor. You are there for the cafeteria, not a campus tour.

India Square sits on Newark Avenue between Tonnele and Kennedy Boulevard, the grocery-and-restaurant stretch people mean when they say Jersey City's Little India. From that strip, walk north on Newark and turn right on Palisade. The school is two minutes up.

Friday is a new Sharod Mela: food from Ek Ghar, Kolkata Depot, and others, then Subhamita Banerjee at 8:30 p.m. Doors 7. Subhamita is a Kolkata playback and festival singer. Friday is complimentary if you already have a both-days registration, or $35 at the gate if you only want that night. RSVP before they hit capacity.

Saturday lists puja from 11:30 a.m., pushpanjali at 1:30, bhog at 2:30, dinner at 5, culture at 6:30. Sunday is noon start, sindoor khela at 3:30, dhunuchi and shankha contests at 4:30. The committee says those times can move. Bhog is the usual khichuri-labra-payesh plate. Dinner menus are posted as tentative, so do not plan a restaurant-level order.

Register on the GSPC site for Saturday and Sunday. The 2024 price table is still sitting on the register page. Do not copy those numbers onto 2026. Use the current form.

PATH to Journal Square, then the 84, 80, or 86 bus to Palisade and Newark, or a walk from Grove Street PATH. Street parking around the school is a high-school Saturday problem. Give yourself time.

The same Saturday, JAPAN Fes is downtown on Montgomery between Hudson and Greene. That is the waterfront, not India Square. Sunday is also Woodside's Little Manila Parade. You cannot honestly do the puja weekend and a Queens first-edition street day. Times Square Durga Utsav is the weekend before if you want the outdoor Midtown pandal instead of a Jersey City hall.

Our take: buy the weekend if you want a Bengali puja with bhog. Do Friday only if you care about Subhamita. Confirm 2026 rates on the register page before you screenshot last year's grid.

When: October 16–18, 2026. Friday night concert. Saturday–Sunday puja.
Where: William L. Dickinson High School, 2 Palisade Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07306