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
Assam calendar, computed for Chennai
- Thursday, 15 April 2027
- Friday, 14 April 2028
- Sunday, 15 April 2029
Where Bohag Bihu · Rongali Bihu falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 15 Apr
- 2028: 14 Apr, the same day of the year
- 2029: 15 Apr, the same day of the year
The dates, year by year
Assam 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. Rongali Bihu, the Bihu of joy, opens the Assamese year at the start of the sowing season, when the kopou orchid flowers and the fields wait for the spring rain; after the cattle have been thanked on Goru Bihu the next day belongs to people, and the gamosa, woven for the day and given to the elders, is its token.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Bohag Bihu · Rongali Bihu: how it is kept
Keep ready
- mah-haladhi, black gram and turmeric paste
- new gamosas for the elders
- new mekhela chador, dhoti and gamosa
- tamul-paan and a xorai
- money for the husori parties
- chira, doi and gur
- pitha and laru
The steps
0 of 7 done
What is cooked
Assam eats the jolpan of chira, muri or akhoi with doi and gur, til pitha, ghila pitha and narikol laru, and on the first days of Bihu many homes cook a dish of many greens, traditionally a hundred and one, to keep illness away for the year; masor tenga, the sour fish curry, and duck or chicken follow in homes that eat meat.
The hour
Clock times for Thursday, 15 April 2027 at Chennai
The day the Sun enters Mesha when the ingress is before sunset, otherwise the next day. Kerala uses the stricter aparahna limit and can differ by one day.
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.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Aparahna | 13:24 | the afternoon, three fifths of the daylight after sunrise |
| Sunset | 18:22 | the moment the sun goes down |
| Pradosha kala | 18:22 to 20:46 | the 2 h 24 min after sunset, the evening worship hour |
Sunrise 05:57, sunset 18:22, UTC+5.5. These are the instants the rule is read at, not the temple's own puja times, which every temple prints for itself.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Shukla Navami from previous day 15:24 until 13:21 | then Shukla Dasami until next day 11:22 |
| Nakshatra | Pushya until 09:34 | then Ashlesha until next day 08:18 |
| Rahu kaal | 13:42 to 15:15 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 05:57 to 07:30 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 09:03 to 10:36 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:44 to 12:34 (0 h 50 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 13:23 | moonset next day 02:19 |
| Sankramana | previous day 15:28 | the instant the sidereal Sun enters the sign, for this place’s clock |
| Punya kala | 05:57 to 12:21 | the ingress fell in the night, so the 16 ghatis are kept from this sunrise; almanacs narrow it by sign |
For Thursday, 15 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
Do not begin the year with a quarrel, a debt paid out, a loan given or harsh words, since the first day is held to set the pattern of the year. Let nothing broken, empty or unclean be the first thing the eyes fall on, and refuse water to no one on the day it is given away.
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. Assam keeps seven days from Goru Bihu, and this is Manuh Bihu, the day of people: a new gamosa is given to the elders and their feet touched, the husori parties go from courtyard to courtyard singing, and the mukoli bihu is danced in the open field.
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 (the dates above)
- Assam keeps seven days of Bohag Bihu, from Goru Bihu through Manuh Bihu to the visiting that closes them; Upper Assam keeps it most in the old way, with the husori going round the villages, and the Bihu stages of Guwahati run for weeks.
- Sri Lanka
- Sri Lanka keeps the Sinhala and Tamil New Year by the almanac's nakath.
- Nepal
- Nepal turns the Bikram Sambat year on Baisakh 1.
The dates above are the Assam 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
ৰঙালী বিহুৰ শুভেচ্ছাRongali Bihur shubhechha
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.
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.