Last updated: September 2026 · Method: desk research from festival sources and our own dal baati research (platform listings). Dates move with the lunar calendar — check the year.
A week or so after Holi, Jodhpur celebrates the strangest food festival in its calendar: Sheetala Ashtami (also called Basoda) — the day when kitchens traditionally stay unlit, and everything eaten is cooked the evening before and served cold. For a city whose signature dish is dal baati churma, this is not a hardship; it’s a showcase. For travellers, it’s a small, fascinating cultural day with excellent food at the end of it.
What the festival is
Sheetala is the goddess of smallpox and healing fires; the festival honours her by not lighting the household hearth for a day — an old vow between hygiene and devotion. Households cook the previous evening: dal baati, sweets, savouries — and eat everything at room temperature on the festival day. Sweet shops and restaurants run special thalis for the day, and families queue for them. Janta Sweet Home’s Sheetala thali has been listed on the delivery apps around the ₹200 mark in past years (approx — prices move); expect queues at every famous counter.
Practicalities
| When | Chaitra Krishna Ashtami — roughly a week after Holi, in March–April by the Gregorian calendar (moves yearly) |
| What closes | Household kitchens, symbolically; many shops run shortened hours; the famous sweet shops run at full throttle |
| What to do | Order or queue for a special thali at a big sweet shop; watch the temple-procession culture in the lanes; eat everything cold and understand why |
| Cost | Special thalis at festival rates (approx ₹150–300 by past listings) |
Why travellers should care
Because it’s the cheapest, most participatory festival in the city: no crowds like Holi, no bookings like Diwali — just a city eating cold dal baati together, with a story you can retell at any lunch table. It pairs perfectly with a Holi-period trip: play Holi, stay the week, eat Basoda.
Questions worth asking
Is cold dal baati actually good?
Yes — the baati’s whole design is travel-food: it was built to keep. Room-temperature baati with the churma and chutneys is a different (arguably better-behaved) meal than the ghee-scalding original.
Will restaurants be open?
The big sweet shops and food courts are — they’re the festival’s engine. Smaller restaurants may run short days; hotel kitchens operate normally.
Related guides
- Holi: the festival a week before
- Where to eat dal baati churma: the roundup
- Janta and the sweet-shop institutions
Been in town for Basoda? Tell us which thali won — food reports feed this page.