Harela Festival The green shoot, and the largest day of the Kumaoni year.
Harela 2027 falls on Saturday, 17 July, computed for Chennai.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
- English
- Harela
- कुमाउँनी
- हरेला
- गढ़वाली
- हरेला
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: 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
Himachal · Uttarakhand calendar, computed for Chennai
- Saturday, 17 July 2027
- Sunday, 16 July 2028
- Monday, 16 July 2029
Where Harela falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 17 Jul
- 2028: 16 Jul
- 2029: 16 Jul
The dates, year by year
Himachal · Uttarakhand calendar, computed for Chennai
| Year | Harela |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Wednesday, 16 July 2025 |
| 2026 | Thursday, 16 July 2026 |
| 2027 | Saturday, 17 July 2027 |
| 2028 | Sunday, 16 July 2028 |
| 2029 | Monday, 16 July 2029 |
| 2030 | Wednesday, 17 July 2030 |
| 2031 | Thursday, 17 July 2031 |
| 2032 | Friday, 16 July 2032 |
| 2033 | Saturday, 16 July 2033 |
| 2034 | Monday, 17 July 2034 |
| 2035 | Tuesday, 17 July 2035 |
| 2036 | Wednesday, 16 July 2036 |
Worked out for Chennai, Lahiri ayanamsa. A date is a function of the place: set yours above and the next three come back for where you are.
What the day is
The green shoot, and the largest day of the Kumaoni year. Five or seven grains are sown in a basket of earth inside the house nine or ten days before Saun opens and kept in the dark, so that what comes up is a hand high and the pale yellow green of a shoot that has never had sun on it. On the morning itself the eldest woman of the house cuts the shoots, puts them behind the ears and on the heads of everyone in it, and gives the blessing jee raya, jagi raya, live and stay awake. The sowing month opens with it, and whether the harela came up thick is read for the crop that is about to go in.
- Deity
- Shiva, Parvati
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
Clock times for Saturday, 17 July 2027 at Chennai
The first day of the solar month of Saun, which is the gate day the Sun enters Karka, in the middle of July. The sowing is nine or ten days before it, by the household’s own count.
This day carries no instant that can be put on a clock: it is fixed by the tithi or the nakshatra running at sunrise, or by a moonrise the app does not compute. The rule above is the whole of it.
The fast
No fast. The day is a feast of its own breads: bedu roti, puri, singal and arsa, with curd and ghee on everything.
Where the regions differ
Kumaon keeps it hardest and speaks of three harelas, in Chait, in Saun and in Asoj, of which the Saun one is the festival; Garhwal keeps it as a sowing day with less of the household ritual, and Uttarakhand plants trees on it as a state. The Hindi belt does not keep it at all, and it is NOT Hariyali Teej, which is a lunar tithi about three weeks later and has an entry of its own here.
The dates above are the Himachal · Uttarakhand 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.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. 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.