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
Bengal calendar, computed for Chennai
- Wednesday, 14 April 2027
- Friday, 14 April 2028
- Saturday, 14 April 2029
Where Charak Puja · Gajan falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 14 Apr
- 2028: 14 Apr, 1 day later
- 2029: 14 Apr, 1 day earlier
The dates, year by year
Bengal calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The last day of Choitro, when the gajan of Shiva, a month of vows kept by the bhaktas or sanyasis of the village, comes to an end. They fast, wear red, pierce the tongue and the back and walk on fire and on thorn, and at the charak a man is swung round the top of a tall pole on a rope; the practice has been regulated since the nineteenth century and most places now swing a harness or a weight. It belongs to the oldest layer of Bengali village religion, folk Shaiva rather than brahminical, and the Dharmathakur gajan of the Rarh country is kept in the same weeks.
- Deity
- Shiva, Dharmathakur
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
On the evening before the charak, mothers across Bengal keep the Nil Puja, the Nil Shashthi: they fast through the day, pour water over the Shiva linga at dusk and light a lamp for their children's long life, and only then eat. The gajan belongs to the village rather than the temple; farm workers, weavers and fishermen take the sanyasi's vow for the month, and its songs, its satire and its dances of Shiva and Parvati are among the oldest folk theatre in the language. In many villages the charak pole spends the year sunk in the village pond and is raised out of the water only for this day. The name is read in more than one way, from the garjan, the roar, of the sanyasis, or from the gathering of the village folk; traditions vary.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Charak Puja · Gajan: how it is kept
Keep ready
- the red thread of the vow
- the charak pole and its crossbeam
- water for the Nil Puja
- a lamp for the linga
- rice and coins for the sanyasis
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
The village eats the charak prasad of fruit, molasses, parched rice and batasa, and the mela beside the pole sells jilipi and papad bhaja into the evening.
The hour
Clock times for Wednesday, 14 April 2027 at Chennai
The Chaitra Sankranti, the last day of the Bengali year; the gajan songs run through the night before and the charak in the afternoon.
The main rite. The Chaitra Sankranti, the last day of the Bengali year; the Nil Puja is kept at dusk on the evening before, and the charak is swung in the afternoon.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Aparahna | 13:24 | the afternoon, three fifths of the daylight after sunrise |
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 Ashtami from previous day 17:29 until 15:24 | then Shukla Navami until next day 13:21 |
| Nakshatra | Punarvasu until 10:53 | then Pushya until next day 09:34 |
| Rahu kaal | 12:09 to 13:42 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 07:30 to 09:03 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 10:36 to 12:09 (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, not counted on a Wednesday |
| Moonrise | 12:23 | moonset next day 01:32 |
For Wednesday, 14 April 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
The bhaktas keep one meal a day through the gajan month, without fish or meat, and sleep on the ground. The village eats the charak prasad of fruit, molasses and parched rice after it.
What is avoided
Weddings, housewarmings and new ventures are not begun in Choitro in Bengal, and wait for Boishakh. The piercing and the fire-walking belong to those who have kept the month's vow under the gajan leader, and are not attempted by anyone else.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Rural West Bengal, Bangladesh and the Bengali districts of Assam and Tripura keep it; the Bangladeshi calendar ends Choitro on 13 April, so the charak there can fall a day earlier. Traditions vary a great deal from village to village on what the bhaktas undertake.
In other regions
- Bengal (the dates above)
- Rural West Bengal and Bangladesh keep the charak, the Rarh country of Bardhaman, Bankura and Birbhum keeps the Dharmathakur gajan beside it, and Kolkata knows the last days of Choitro best for the choitro sale in the shops before the new year.
- Assam
- The Bengali villages of the Barak Valley keep the charak as Bengal does, on the same sankranti that the Brahmaputra valley keeps as Goru Bihu.
The dates above are the Bengal 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.
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
Temples of Shiva near you
Not recorded for this day in particular: the nearest temples of the day's own gods, for a reader whose own temple is not listed above.
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Kapaleeswarar and Karpagambal, with the peacock shrine
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adipureeswarar and Vadivudai Amman with Thyagaraja
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Masilamaniswarar with Kodiyidai Nayaki
- Tiruvallur, Tamil Nadu · Vadaranyeswarar with Vandarkuzhali, and the Urdhva Tandava Nataraja
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.
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.