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
Punjab calendar, computed for Chennai
- Friday, 15 January 2027
- Tuesday, 4 January 2028
- Thursday, 10 January 2030
Where Guru Gobind Singh Gurpurab falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 15 Jan
- 2028: 4 Jan, 11 days earlier
- 2030: 10 Jan, 6 days later
The dates, year by year
Punjab calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The prakash purab, the coming of the light, of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru, born at Patna in 1666. He founded the Khalsa at Anandpur Sahib in 1699, gave the Panth the five kakars and the names Singh and Kaur, and before he died at Nanded in 1708 he closed the line of living Gurus and gave the guruship to the Guru Granth Sahib. The day is kept with an akhand path finished that morning, a nagar kirtan and the langar.
- Deity
- Guru Gobind Singh
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Sikhs remember the tenth Guru as sarbans dani, the one who gave everything: his father Guru Tegh Bahadur was martyred when he was nine, his elder sons Ajit Singh and Jujhar Singh fell fighting at Chamkaur in 1704, and the younger two, Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh, were bricked up and put to death at Sirhind days later. He answered Aurangzeb with the Zafarnama, a letter in Persian verse that rebukes the emperor for broken oaths, and he wrote the Jaap Sahib, the Tav-Prasad Savaiye and the Chaupai that the Khalsa recites every day. The ideal he left is the sant-sipahi, saint and soldier in one, who keeps the discipline of the Name and stands up for the weak whoever they are. Families keep the day by hearing those stories again and by teaching the children the banis he wrote.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Guru Gobind Singh Gurpurab: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a head covering for everyone
- a rumala for the Guru Granth Sahib, if the family offers one
- langar rations: atta, dal, ghee, sugar and milk
- flowers and lights for the palki and the house
- the family's daswandh
- a gutka of the Nitnem banis
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
Karah prashad of whole wheat flour, ghee and sugar in equal measure is given to everyone at the close of the diwan. The langar is dal, a seasonal sabzi, rotis and kheer, always vegetarian so that anyone may eat it; in the Poh cold many gurdwaras add sarson da saag, makki di roti and hot tea, and the Prabhat Pheri is met at the doors with tea and pakoras.
The hour
Clock times for Friday, 15 January 2027 at Chennai
Poh Sudi Saptami in the Bikrami reckoning, which most sangats have followed again since the SGPC reverted in 2010 and which the calendar here prints: 17 January 2024 and 6 January 2025. The fixed Nanakshahi calendar of 2003 had put it on Poh 23, the fifth of January, for ever; the two can be a fortnight apart, and a Gregorian year can hold two of the Bikrami date or none.
The main rite. Poh 23 of the fixed Nanakshahi calendar, the day the calendar prints; sangats that follow the Bikrami moon keep Poh Sudi Saptami, the seventh day of the bright fortnight of Poh, instead. The Akhand Path is begun two days before so that its bhog falls on the morning of the gurpurab.
This day's rule names no hour of its own: it is fixed by the tithi or the nakshatra running at sunrise. The rule above is the whole of it, and the day's own times are below.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Shukla Saptami from previous day 13:59 until 14:14 | then Shukla Ashtami until next day 13:44 |
| Nakshatra | Revati until 23:51 | then Ashwini until next day 23:39 |
| Rahu kaal | 10:52 to 12:18 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 15:10 to 16:36 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 08:01 to 09:27 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:55 to 12:41 (0 h 46 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 11:19 | moonset next day 00:05 |
For Friday, 15 January 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 Sikh tradition sets no store by fasting. The langar runs through the day and everyone eats it sitting in the same rows, and karah prasad is given out at the end of the diwan.
What is avoided
Pictures of the Gurus are not worshipped with lamps, garlands or arati: the Guru is the Guru Granth Sahib and the Shabad. Tobacco and alcohol are kept away from the gurdwara and the nagar kirtan, heads stay covered and shoes are left outside the diwan hall, and nobody sits above or apart from anyone else in the pangat.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The gurdwaras of the Punjab, Delhi, the historic takhts and the diaspora keep the gurpurabs alike, with an akhand path over the two days before and a nagar kirtan behind the panj pyare. The Nanakshahi calendar of 2003 fixed several of these to Gregorian dates and the revert of 2010 put some of them back on the Bikrami moon, so the date can differ between the SGPC calendar and a local sangat; traditions vary, and the gurdwara notice is the one to follow.
In other regions
- North India
- Takht Sri Patna Sahib in Bihar, built where he was born, keeps the gurpurab as its own great day, with sangats arriving from across India for the nagar kirtan through the old city; the gurdwaras of Delhi keep it as the Punjab does.
- Maharashtra
- Takht Sachkhand Sri Hazur Sahib at Nanded, where he passed the guruship to the Guru Granth Sahib and left the world in 1708, keeps the gurpurab with a diwan and a nagar kirtan of its own.
- Punjab (the dates above)
- The Punjab keeps it in every gurdwara, with Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib at Anandpur, where he founded the Khalsa, among the fullest; the SGPC calendar and some local sangats can differ on the date, and the gurdwara notice is the one to follow.
The dates above are the Punjab 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
ਪ੍ਰਕਾਸ਼ ਪੁਰਬ ਦੀਆਂ ਲੱਖ ਲੱਖ ਵਧਾਈਆਂPrakash Purab diyan lakh lakh vadhaiyan
Mantras
The prayers said with the day. Each opens with its words and meaning.
- Mool Mantar (Ik Onkar)
- Japji Sahib
A name without a link is a long reading, read in full from the family’s own copy or at the place of worship; the library prints the shorter prayers.
Fixing a day for it
The muhurtham rules for a puja held alongside, whose day the family chooses
Guru Gobind Singh Gurpurab's own date is set by the rule in "The hour" above, and no muhurtham moves it. For a temple visit around it, whose day the family does choose, the finder below applies these rules.
A temple visit, or the first darshan at a new temple. No weekday is ruled out: Tuesday belongs to Murugan and the Amman, Saturday to Perumal and Sani, so the day usually follows the deity rather than the almanac. Ashtami and Chaturdasi are the two tithis held back for darshan, with the standing exceptions of Sivaratri on Krishna Chaturdasi and Kala Bhairava Ashtami, which are kept on those very days. Rahu kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika kaal are not scored here; the panchangam page prints them for the day you pick, and most families simply wait them out.
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.