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
Maharashtra calendar, computed for Chennai
- Wednesday, 7 April 2027
- Monday, 27 March 2028
- Saturday, 14 April 2029
Where Gudi Padwa 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
Maharashtra calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The first day of Chaitra, the Marathi new year and the turn of the Shalivahana Shaka. A gudi is raised at the door or over the window in the morning: a bamboo pole with a bright green or yellow cloth tied at the top, a garland of neem and mango leaves, a string of sugar crystals and an inverted brass or silver pot above it all, and it is taken down before sunset. It is one of the saade teen muhurta, the three and a half days of the Marathi year on which anything may be begun without asking the almanac for an hour.
- Deity
- Brahma, Vishnu
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
The gudi is a flag of victory raised at the door, and families give it more than one reason: Rama's return to Ayodhya, the Shalivahana king's victory from which the Shaka era is counted, and Brahma beginning the creation on this day. The upturned pot, the silk and the neem together say what the new year is asked for: plenty, beauty and health. The bitter neem eaten first is an elder's lesson as much as a custom, that a year will bring the bitter with the sweet and both are to be taken. Because it is one of the saade teen muhurta, gold is bought, a house entered or a business begun on it without looking for another hour.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Gudi Padwa: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a bamboo pole
- a new silk cloth with a zari border
- neem and mango leaves
- a marigold garland
- a gathi, the sugar crystal garland
- a copper, brass or silver pot
- rangoli colours
- haldi-kunku and akshata
- a ghee lamp and incense
- the new year's panchang
The steps
0 of 9 done
What is cooked
The kadulimb of neem and jaggery comes first. The festive meal is puran poli with katachi amti, or shrikhand with puri, with aamras where the first mangoes have come in, and sakhar bhat in many Konkan houses.
The hour
Clock times for Wednesday, 7 April 2027 at Chennai
Chaitra shuddha Pratipada at sunrise; when the tithi begins and ends between two sunrises the day it ran on is taken. The gudi goes up in the morning and comes down before dusk.
The main rite. Chaitra shuddha Pratipada, the first day of the bright fortnight. The gudi goes up soon after sunrise and the oil bath, and is taken down before sunset.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 06:02 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
| 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 is kept. Neem leaves pounded with jaggery, gram dal and a little tamarind are eaten first, for a year taken whole, and puran poli and shrikhand follow.
What is avoided
The gudi is not left standing after sunset, and it is not raised in a house still in mourning for the year. Nothing bitter is refused on the day, and quarrels are put off, since the year is held to follow the way it begins.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The same tithi is Ugadi in the Deccan, Navreh in Kashmir, Cheti Chand for the Sindhis and the Vikram Samvat new year in the north. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bengal, Assam and Nepal keep a solar new year a fortnight later instead.
In other regions
- Telugu
- The Telugu country keeps the same tithi as Ugadi, with the six-taste pachadi and the panchanga sravanam in the afternoon.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps it as Yugadi, with bevu-bella, neem and jaggery, eaten first and holige for the meal.
- North India
- The north begins the Vikram Samvat year and the nine days of Chaitra Navratri on the same morning, with the kalash set up and the barley sown.
- Maharashtra (the dates above)
- Maharashtra and Goa raise the gudi, with shobha yatras in Girgaon, Thane and Dombivli, the women in nauvari saris and the men in pheta turbans.
The dates above are the Maharashtra 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
गुढीपाडव्याच्या हार्दिक शुभेच्छाGudhipadvyachya hardik shubhechha
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
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.
Fixing a day for it
The muhurtham rules for a puja held alongside, whose day the family chooses
Gudi Padwa's own date is set by the rule in "The hour" above, and no muhurtham moves it. For a gold around it, whose day the family does choose, the finder below applies these rules.
Buying gold or jewellery. Poosam is the star for buying gold, and Akshaya Tritiya (Vaishakha Shukla Thritiyai) and Dhanteras (Krishna Trayodasi before Deepavali) are the two days the whole country buys on, whatever else the day carries. No lagna rule is applied here, so the day is graded as a whole.
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.