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
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
- Wednesday, 7 April 2027
- Monday, 27 March 2028
- Saturday, 14 April 2029
Where Gudi Padwa · Ugadi falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 7 Apr
- 2028: 27 Mar, 10 days earlier
- 2029: 14 Apr, 17 days later
The dates, year by year
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The same tithi as the Vikram Samvat new year, under the names the other regions give it. Maharashtra and Goa raise the gudi, a bamboo pole with a bright cloth, a garland and an inverted pot, over the door; Andhra, Telangana and Karnataka call it Ugadi; Kashmir calls it Navreh; the Sindhis keep Cheti Chand for Jhulelal.
- Deity
- Brahma, Vishnu
- Kind
- Observance Days marked, watched or begun, without a fast or a feast of their own.
Significance
The north marks this sunrise chiefly as the first day of the Chaitra Navratri, but the Hindi almanac prints its other names because the same morning opens the year for Maharashtra, Goa, the Telugu and Kannada country, Kashmir and the Sindhis. All of them begin here for one reason, the tradition that Brahma began creation on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, and all of them read the new year's panchang aloud on it, naming the planet that will be raja of the year and the one that will be its mantri. A Hindi-speaking family in Mumbai, Hyderabad or Bengaluru therefore keeps its neighbours' new year and its own Navratri kalash on the one morning.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Gudi Padwa · Ugadi: how it is kept
Keep ready
- the kalash and the barley for it
- the new almanac
- neem leaves
- a red cloth and the image for the Navratri shrine
- the Durga Saptashati
The steps
0 of 7 done
What is cooked
The neem comes first, a leaf or the bitter paste, before anything else passes the lips. After it the north eats the Navratri fare of the nine days, kuttu or singhara flour, sendha namak and fruit, so the day that is a feast in Maharashtra and the Deccan is the start of a fast here. Houses not keeping the Navratri make kheer and puri.
The hour
Clock times for Wednesday, 7 April 2027 at Chennai
Chaitra Shukla Pratipada at sunrise. The gudi is raised in the morning and taken down before sunset.
The main rite. Chaitra Shukla Pratipada holding the sunrise, the same morning the north sets up its Navratri kalash. The gudi is raised, the neem is eaten and the year's panchang is read in the morning hours.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 06:02 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
| Sunset | 18:21 | the moment the sun goes down |
| Pradosha kala | 18:21 to 20:45 | the 2 h 24 min after sunset, the evening worship hour |
Sunrise 06:02, sunset 18:21, 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 05:21 until next day 04:29 | then Shukla Dwitiyai until 2 days later, 03:11 |
| Nakshatra | Revati until 18:26 | then Ashwini until next day 18:00 |
| Rahu kaal | 12:11 to 13:44 (1 h 32 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 07:34 to 09:06 (1 h 32 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 10:39 to 12:11 (1 h 32 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:47 to 12:36 (0 h 49 min) | the midday muhurta, not counted on a Wednesday |
| Moonrise | 05:56 | moonset 18:42 |
For Wednesday, 7 April 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast. Maharashtra eats neem and jaggery together, and the Deccan the six-taste Ugadi pachadi, for the same reason.
What is avoided
It is a day of beginnings, so quarrels, debts and harsh words are kept away from the house, and nothing is lent out. Most households that keep it keep it vegetarian.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
One day, several names. It is a lunar new year, so it moves through late March and April, unlike the solar new years of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bengal and Assam a fortnight later.
In other regions
- Telugu
- The Telugu country keeps Ugadi with the six-taste pachadi eaten first and the panchanga sravanam, the public reading of the year's forecast, at the temples.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps Yugadi with bevu-bella, neem and jaggery, eaten first, and holige or obbattu at the meal; the next day is the Chandra darshana of the new moon.
- North India (the dates above)
- The Hindi belt keeps the day as Nav Samvatsar and the first of the Navratri, with the kalash and the new panchang rather than a gudi; Kashmiri Pandits keep Navreh with a thali of rice, walnuts and a new almanac, and the Sindhi Cheti Chand for Jhulelal falls on this day or the next, with the first sight of the moon.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra and Goa keep Gudi Padwa: the gudi of bamboo, silk, neem and mango leaves, sugar garland and upturned pot goes up at the door, and the shobha yatras go through Girgaon, Dombivli and Thane.
The dates above are the North India 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.
- Male Mahadeshwara Temple 313 kmMM Hills, Chamarajanagar, Karnataka
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Maha Sivaratri and the Ugadi fair are its days.
- Nandyal, Andhra Pradesh
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Maha Sivaratri and Ugadi are its days.
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.
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.