Festival Holika, Prahlada, Narasimha, Agni
Holika Dahan · Chhoti Holi
The full moon of Phalguna, the evening the bonfire is lit for Holika, who sat in the fire holding Prahlada and burnt while the boy came out unhurt.
Holika Dahan · Chhoti Holi 2027 falls on Monday, 22 March, 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
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
- Monday, 22 March 2027
- Friday, 10 March 2028
- Wednesday, 28 February 2029
Where Holika Dahan · Chhoti Holi falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 22 Mar
- 2028: 10 Mar, 11 days earlier
- 2029: 28 Feb, 11 days earlier
The two days of Holi
Part of the same festival, in order, in the North India calendar
- Holika Dahan · Chhoti Holi(this page) …
- Holi · Kamadahana · Dhulandi …
The dates, year by year
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The full moon of Phalguna, the evening the bonfire is lit for Holika, who sat in the fire holding Prahlada and burnt while the boy came out unhurt. The pile is built at the crossroads over the previous weeks, circled and lit after dusk, and the new barley and gram are roasted in it and eaten.
- Deity
- Holika, Prahlada, Narasimha, Agni
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Hiranyakashipu could not bear that his son Prahlada went on praying to Vishnu, and his sister Holika, who could not be burnt, by a boon in one telling and a shawl in another, sat in the fire with the boy on her lap; the protection failed her and passed to him, and she burnt while he walked out unhurt. When fire failed, the king struck a pillar and dared Vishnu to be in it, and Vishnu came out of it as Narasimha, the man-lion, at dusk on the threshold, and ended him. The fire is older than the story as well: holaka is the old word for grain roasted half-ripe, and the Holika fire began as the offering of the first ears of the spring harvest, which is why barley and gram are still roasted in it. Married women worship the pile in the daytime with raw cotton thread wound round it, asking for the health of the family, before it is lit at night.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Holika Dahan · Chhoti Holi: how it is kept
Keep ready
- dry wood and cow-dung cakes
- garlands of small dung cakes
- a lota of water
- roli, turmeric and akshat
- raw cotton thread
- flowers, gur and batashe
- a coconut
- ears of new barley or wheat, and green gram on the stalk
- a lamp
The steps
0 of 9 done
What is cooked
The north shares the roasted ears of barley, wheat and gram, and the kitchens are full of gujiya, papri, mathri and namak pare, with the kanji vada and dahi vada that must steep overnight for the colours of the morning. Maharashtra offers puran poli to the holi fire and eats it for dinner with katachi amti.
The hour
Clock times for Monday, 22 March 2027 at Chennai
The Purnima running at pradosha, the evening the fire is lit, with the classical exception: when the Purnima of the next day runs past three prahars, three quarters of the daylight, the Holika is burnt that following evening instead. In 2026 the Purnima ran from 17:56 on 2 March to 17:08 on the 3rd and the dahan was the 3rd, with Holi on the 4th. Almanacs that avoid the Bhadra hour name a muhurtham later that night; the day is the same.
The main rite. The Purnima running at pradosha, the evening after sunset, is the hour for the fire, and it is not lit while Bhadra, the karana called Vishti, is running; when Bhadra covers the evening the almanac names a muhurtham later in the night, and the fire waits for it.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Pradosha kala | 18:20 to 20:44 | the 2 h 24 min after sunset, the evening worship hour |
Sunrise 06:12, sunset 18:20, 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 Pournami from previous day 18:22 until 16:14 | then Krishna Prathamai until next day 14:29 |
| Nakshatra | Uttara Phalguni until 20:46 | then Hasta until next day 19:50 |
| Rahu kaal | 07:43 to 09:14 (1 h 31 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 10:45 to 12:16 (1 h 31 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 13:47 to 15:18 (1 h 31 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:52 to 12:40 (0 h 49 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 18:19 | moonset next day 06:30 |
For Monday, 22 March 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
Some keep the day of the dahan on one meal. New grain, coconut and gram are put into the fire and the roasted ears are shared.
What is avoided
Do not light the fire while Bhadra runs, and do not cut a green tree for it: the pile is of dry wood and dung cakes, and no plastic, tyres or rubbish go into it. In many families a bride does not watch the first Holika fire of her married life from her in-laws' home, and spends that Holi at her parents'.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The north and west keep the fire and the colours on two days; the Deccan keeps the same full moon as Kamadahana or Kama Dahanam, burning Kama who was reduced to ashes by Shiva's glance, which is the southern reading of the same fire.
In other regions
- Telugu
- Telangana keeps the night as Kamuni Punnami, burning Kamudu, the god of desire, in the street fire, and Andhra keeps it as Kamadahanam, with little colour.
- Kannada
- North Karnataka keeps Kamana Habba: an effigy of Kama is set up in the lane for some days, sung to, and burnt on the full moon night, and the colours are played the next morning.
- North India (the dates above)
- The north keeps Holika Dahan in every village and colony at a pile built up over the weeks before; in Braj the panda of Phalen village walks through the blazing Holika fire, and across Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh the grain roasted in it is the first of the new crop to be eaten.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra's Holi is this fire itself, lit on the Phalgun Pournima with puran poli offered into it; the Konkan keeps it as Shimga, a festival of a week or more with the village deity's palkhi, and the colours wait for Rang Panchami.
- Bengal
- Bengal lights its own fire on the eve of Dol, the nyara pora or burir ghar, a hut of straw and dry leaves burnt in the neighbourhood.
- Assam
- Assam burns a meji on the first night of the Doul at Barpeta and in the satras, before the phaku is played.
- Nepal
- Nepal burns the chir, the tall bamboo pole hung with strips of cloth that has stood at Basantapur for the week of Fagu, on the full moon evening.
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.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
होलिका दहन की शुभकामनाएँHolika Dahan ki shubhkamnayein
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
Temples of Narasimha 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.