Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
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A tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Sri Lanka calendar, computed for Chennai
- Tuesday, 13 April 2027
- Wednesday, 12 April 2028
- Friday, 13 April 2029
Where Avurudu eve · Old year ends falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 13 Apr
- 2028: 12 Apr, the same day of the year
- 2029: 13 Apr, the same day of the year
The Sinhala and Tamil New Year
Part of the same festival, in order, in the Sri Lanka calendar
- Avurudu eve · Old year ends(this page) …
- Aluth Avurudu · Sinhala and Tamil New Year …
The dates, year by year
Sri Lanka calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The day the Sun enters Mesha, on which the solar calendars of the east and the south begin their year. Bengal opens the halkhata, the new account book, for Poila Boishakh; Assam keeps Bohag Bihu with the cattle and the husori songs; Kerala keeps Vishu, Tamil Nadu Puthandu and Odisha Pana Sankranti. The Punjab keeps Vaisakhi as the harvest and the founding of the Khalsa.
- Deity
- Surya
- Kind
- Observance Days marked, watched or begun, without a fast or a feast of their own.
Significance
Mesha is the sign in which the Sun is exalted, so the solar calendars of the east and the south begin their year with the Sun at its strongest, while the lunar calendars of the north, the Deccan and Maharashtra have already begun theirs at Chaitra Shukla Pratipada. Odisha still calls the day Maha Vishuva Sankranti, from the time, some seventeen centuries ago, when the ingress fell on the spring equinox. It is also the start of the hot season, so the gift of the day is water: a pot of cool water with a hand fan, sattu and jaggery is given away, water stands are opened by the road, and in Odisha a pot with a hole in its base is hung over the tulasi to drip through the summer. At Haridwar the Kumbh is held when the Sun is in Mesha and Jupiter in Kumbha, so in those years the Baisakhi bath at Har ki Pauri is the Kumbh's own great bath. The old year is let go on this day with a clean house, settled accounts and a bath in herbal water at the nakath the almanac gives for it, so that nothing of the old year's trouble is carried across the crossing.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Avurudu eve · Old year ends: how it is kept
Keep ready
- things for cleaning, and whitewash
- the herbal water the almanac names for the bath
- rice flour, treacle and oil for the kavum and kokis
- rice, milk and a new clay pot for the morning
- white clothes for the temple
The steps
0 of 5 done
What is cooked
The day's cooking is the frying of kavum, kokis, athirasa and aluwa for the new year table; once the nonagathaya begins the family eats only what was made before it.
The hour
Clock times for Tuesday, 13 April 2027 at Chennai
The day before the crossing from Meena into Mesha; the old year ends at the instant the almanac names and the nonagathaya begins there.
The main rite. The day the Sun enters Mesha when it does so before sunset, otherwise the next day; the bath and the daan belong to the morning of that day, and the new year's first sights and first meal to its first hours. Kerala, Bengal, Assam, Nepal and Sri Lanka each apply their own rule to the same ingress, so their days can differ by one.
This day's rule names no hour of its own: it is fixed by the tithi or the nakshatra running at sunrise. The rule above is the whole of it, and the day's own times are below.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Shukla Saptami from previous day 19:35 until 17:29 | then Shukla Ashtami until next day 15:24 |
| Nakshatra | Ardra until 12:13 | then Punarvasu until next day 10:53 |
| Rahu kaal | 15:16 to 16:49 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 09:04 to 10:37 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 12:10 to 13:43 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:45 to 12:34 (0 h 50 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 11:20 | moonset next day 00:40 |
| Sankramana | next day 15:28 | the instant the sidereal Sun enters the sign, for this place’s clock |
| Punya kala | 05:58 to 12:22 | the ingress fell in the night, so the 16 ghatis are kept from this sunrise; almanacs narrow it by sign |
For Tuesday, 13 April 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast. Each region keeps its own feast: the Bengali panta bhat and ilish, the Kerala sadya, the Tamil mangai pachadi.
What is avoided
Once the nonagathaya begins no work is started, no fire is lit for cooking, and nothing is bought or sold until the nakath of the new year.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The North Indian lunar year has already turned at Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, a fortnight earlier, so the north marks this day only in passing. Vaisakhi is dated by the Nanakshahi calendar and can fall a day off the sankranti. The eve is the last day of the old year in the Sri Lankan reckoning: the house is cleaned out, the old hearth put out, and the kiribath, the kavum and the kokis are made ready for the morning.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu keeps the day as Puthandu, the Tamil new year, with the kani and the new panchangam.
- Kerala
- Kerala keeps it as Vishu, with the Vishukkani and the kaineettam.
- Kannada
- The Tulu coast of Karnataka keeps it as Bisu, the Tulu new year.
- North India
- The north marks the day as Baisakhi in Haryana, Himachal and Jammu, with the rabi harvest, the melas and the great bath at Har ki Pauri in Haridwar; Bihar keeps Satuan with sattu and raw mango, Mithila keeps Jur Sital, Kumaon keeps Bikhauti, and Odisha keeps Pana Sankranti, the Odia new year, with the pana and the close of the Danda Nata.
- Bengal
- Bengal keeps Poila Boishakh, the halkhata and the new year feast.
- Punjab
- The Punjab keeps Vaisakhi, the wheat harvest and the founding of the Khalsa.
- Assam
- Assam keeps Bohag Bihu, the seven days of the spring Bihu.
- Sri Lanka (the dates above)
- The eve is the last day of the old year: the markets are crowded with the last shopping, the kitchens with the frying of the sweets, and the temples with those who spend the nonagathaya there.
- Nepal
- Nepal turns the Bikram Sambat year on Baisakh 1.
The dates above are the Sri Lanka reckoning, because that is the calendar this key belongs to. Switch the tradition on the calendar page to see how another one dates the same day.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
සුබ අලුත් අවුරුද්දක් වේවාSuba aluth avuruddak wewa
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Kollam, Kerala
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Mandalam and the Meena Vishu festival are its seasons.
- Ananthapura Lake Temple 576 kmKumbla, Kasaragod, Kerala
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Vishu is its day.
- Kollam, Kerala
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Meena Vishu and the Mandalam season are its days.
- Pathanamthitta, Kerala
The gazetteer line names the day as the edge of this temple’s open season. Open in Mandala-Makaravilakku (mid-November to mid-January), the first five days of each Malayalam month and Vishu
1 more temple in this gazetteer is recorded for the day. Find temples near you.
Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.
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A temple is listed here only where the gazetteer's own line names this day, or where this day's own entry names the town, or where the day belongs to the ancestors or the nagas and the temple is recorded for that rite. Where neither table says anything, nothing is listed as kept for the day; where fewer than three are, the nearest temples of the day's own gods are added under a heading of their own.
Mantras
The prayers said with the day. Each opens with its words and meaning.
- Namo Tassa (homage to the Buddha)
- Tisarana (the three refuges)
- Karaniya Metta Sutta
A name without a link is a long reading, read in full from the family’s own copy or at the place of worship; the library prints the shorter prayers.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it.
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A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.