Delivery Diaries | Festival without boundaries: how India eats together

Food delivery allows tradition to continue even when time doesn’t permit elaborate preparations.

It’s a striking trend each Onam – while Kerala celebrates at home, it’s Bengaluru and Chennai that top the charts for Onam Sadhya orders.

This year, nearly 75 percent of all Sadhya orders came from outside Kerala — a reminder that the festival of abundance has travelled beyond its borders, reflecting a modern India where diaspora nostalgia meets digital convenience.

Interestingly, even during Ganesh Chaturthi this year, Bengaluru, Delhi, and Kolkata were among the top five cities ordering modaks, with Vadodara, Surat, Dehradun, and Patna emerging as new modak hubs. This reflects how the celebration of the festival is spreading far beyond its traditional strongholds.

Similarly, during Durga Puja, close to 50 percent of the orders received on Swiggy for sandesh and mishti doi came from outside West Bengal. Food traditionally popular in a particular region is now being ordered, celebrated, and shared in cities far away — turning festivals from regional celebrations into shared experiences across the country. Migration, social media, and a growing appetite for regional authenticity have turned these dishes into ambassadors of culture.

Festivals as Shared Experiences

The redefinition of regional festivals is enabling cultural integration, as cross-regional celebrations are quietly weaving our diversity into a more unified fabric. Festivals are being seen as a medium for creating shared experiences with family and friends.

In addition, shared festivals are building communities — a home away from home — through the language of food. Whether it’s Bengali bhog and rosogolla during Durga Puja, Andhra’s pulihora during festivals, or puran poli during Ganesh Chaturthi, these delicacies are no longer confined to the states they were born in.

Today, India orders and celebrates festivals across the country with the same enthusiasm as the regions these festivals hail from. Restaurants are also supporting this shift by offering festive dishes that transcend regional boundaries.

Technology as the New Tradition Keeper

Behind every seemingly simple festive order lies a network of cloud kitchens, logistics partners, and local sellers who make regional food discoverable and deliverable. For many households, this digital infrastructure keeps traditions alive amid modern schedules.

The complexity of regional recipes, from sourcing the right jaggery to maintaining ritual purity, used to be a barrier. Now, technology smooths the edges: curated menus, verified sellers, and hyperlocal supply chains ensure authenticity without the anxiety of coordination. In a way, platforms are not replacing rituals; they’re preserving them by making participation easier.

Changing Behaviour, Constant Emotion

The modern festive eater is driven by both convenience and curiosity. Younger consumers see festivals as a chance to explore and share, ordering foods they may never have cooked at home. Older generations, meanwhile, value how delivery allows tradition to continue even when time doesn’t permit elaborate preparations. Our data clearly reflects this.

The menus themselves are evolving. Festive tables now hold a blend of the old and the new, gajar halwa alongside tiramisu, vegan mithai beside classic laddu. The impulse is not to replace but to layer, to make celebration more inclusive and reflective of today’s lifestyles.

Building on this further, this festive season we have launched a “No Added Sugar” category to celebrate sweets mindfully. The menu is further divided into “Not Sweetened” and “Naturally Sweetened,” allowing users to get additional information before placing an order.

The New Festival Economy

Festive months are no longer just cultural high points; they’re also economic engines. Regional artisans, home chefs, and boutique brands plan their biggest launches around them. Cloud kitchens ramp up production, pop-ups test new markets, and digital storefronts offer limited-edition menus.

This decentralized, seasonal economy is creating livelihoods beyond metros. A halwai in Indore or a home chef in Kochi can now reach customers across the country. What used to be a local event has become a national opportunity. We have recorded double-digit growth across sweets, festive thalis, and gifting categories this festive season, spanning from Ganesh Chaturthi to Diwali.

A Richer, More Connected Table

Regional festivals going national are not merely about food; they’re about belonging, transcending the original local context to become symbols of shared identity and inclusion. When a family in Delhi orders khichuri bhog from a Bengali kitchen or a Chennai home tries puran poli for the first time, it’s an act of cultural participation.

Modern food infrastructure has made that exchange possible at scale, enabling India’s many kitchens to speak to each other. The future of festivals isn’t about standardization; it’s about access. The aroma of a thousand traditions now travels with a tap.

In that shared aroma and celebration lies the true promise of India’s digital food revolution, a country not just eating together, but celebrating together.