Festival Buddha, Natha, Vishnu, Kataragama, Pattini
Esala Perahera · Kap Situveema
The Kandy Esala Perahera, the procession of the Tooth Relic, which runs for ten nights from the kap situveema, the planting of a consecrated jackfruit post at each of the four devales of Natha, Vishnu, Kataragama and Pattini.
Esala Perahera · Kap Situveema 2027 falls on Tuesday, 3 August, computed for Chennai.
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, 3 August 2027
- Saturday, 22 July 2028
- Friday, 10 August 2029
Where Esala Perahera · Kap Situveema falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 3 Aug
- 2028: 22 Jul, 11 days earlier
- 2029: 10 Aug, 18 days later
The dates, year by year
Sri Lanka calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The Kandy Esala Perahera, the procession of the Tooth Relic, which runs for ten nights from the kap situveema, the planting of a consecrated jackfruit post at each of the four devales of Natha, Vishnu, Kataragama and Pattini. Five nights of Kumbal Perahera are followed by five of Randoli, each larger than the last, with a hundred caparisoned elephants, the Maligawa tusker carrying the golden casket, whip crackers, fire dancers and the Kandyan drums. It has been kept in something like this form since the eighteenth century and is the largest Buddhist procession anywhere.
- Deity
- Buddha, Natha, Vishnu, Kataragama, Pattini
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
The Tooth Relic has been the sign of the right to rule the island for centuries, and the perahera is the relic's annual progress through the royal city, asking for rain and for a good harvest after the dry months. For a Kandyan family it is the one sight of the year: the drums heard from across the lake, the Maligawa tusker walking on a white cloth laid before it, and the dancers who have trained for it since childhood. Many families have walked in it for generations as drummers, dancers or torch bearers, and the right to do so passes from father to son. Planting the kap, a consecrated post of young jak wood, at each of the four devales is the vow that the procession will be carried through.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Esala Perahera · Kap Situveema: how it is kept
Keep ready
- white clothes
- jasmine or lotus flowers
- a lamp with oil
- a mat or a folding stool for the roadside
- drinking water
- a torch for the walk home
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
Houses along the route feed the relatives who come in from the villages, with rice and curry and kiribath on the Poya morning. On the roadside the dansal give tea, coffee and rice, and vendors sell roasted peanuts and kadala in paper cones.
The hour
Clock times for Tuesday, 3 August 2027 at Chennai
The Shukla Pratipada at sunrise of the lunar month the perahera runs in, when the kap is planted; the peraheras themselves go out after dark on each of the ten nights.
The main rite. The kap is planted at the nakath, the auspicious time, the temple announces on the first day of the bright fortnight of the perahera month. The processions go out after dark on each night of the festival, at times the Maligawa publishes.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 05:55 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
Sunrise 05:55, sunset 18:35, 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 Prathamai from previous day 15:35 until 11:52 | then Shukla Dwitiyai until next day 08:20 |
| Nakshatra | Ashlesha until 14:17 | then Magha until next day 11:37 |
| Rahu kaal | 15:25 to 17:00 (1 h 35 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 09:05 to 10:40 (1 h 35 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 12:15 to 13:50 (1 h 35 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:50 to 12:40 (0 h 51 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 06:37 | moonset 19:28 |
For Tuesday, 3 August 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast is kept. The Poya nights that fall inside the ten are kept with sil as usual.
What is avoided
Flash photography at the elephants and throwing anything into the procession are forbidden, and no one crosses the route while it is passing. The Poya nights inside the festival are kept without meat or liquor.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Kandy keeps the great one; Kataragama, Devinuwara and Bellanwila hold their own Esala peraheras in the same season. The Sinhala month names lag the Sanskrit ones by one, so the Kandy perahera begins in Esala and ends on the Nikini full moon.
In other regions
- Sri Lanka (the dates above)
- Kandy keeps the great procession; Kataragama, Devinuwara and Bellanwila hold their own Esala peraheras in the same season, and Kataragama draws Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims alike.
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.
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Monaragala, Uva Province, Sri Lanka
The entry for this day names Kataragama, and it is a temple of Kataragama. The Kandy Esala Perahera, the procession of the Tooth Relic, which runs for ten nights from the kap situveema, the planting of a consecrated jackfruit post at each of the four devales of Natha, Vishnu, Kataragama and Pattini.
Temples of Vishnu 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 · Venkatakrishnan (Parthasarathy) with the arrow scars on his face
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · The eight forms of Lakshmi in shrines on four floors, facing the sea
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adhivyadhihara Bhaktha Anjaneyar, thirty-two feet tall from a single block of granite
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Neervanna Perumal below and Ranganathar on the hill, in four postures
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.