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
Telugu calendar, computed for Chennai
- Saturday, 16 January 2027
- Sunday, 16 January 2028
- Monday, 15 January 2029
Where Kanuma falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 16 Jan
- 2028: 16 Jan, the same day of the year
- 2029: 15 Jan, 1 day earlier
The days of Sankranti
Part of the same festival, in order, in the Telugu calendar
- Bhogi …
- Makara Sankranti · Sankranthi …
- Kanuma(this page) …
The dates, year by year
Telugu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The day after Sankranti, kept for the cattle that worked the land. The bullocks are bathed, their horns painted, garlands and bells put on them and cock fights and bull races held in the coastal districts. It is a day on which people traditionally do not travel, staying with the family and the animals.
- Deity
- Gomatha, Indra, Krishna
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Kanuma is the day the farmer thanks what he cannot plough without: the bullocks and cows that worked the fields, the birds that shared the grain, and the land itself, and the story told is of Krishna lifting Govardhana to shelter the herds of Gokula from Indra's rain. A Telugu saying has it that even a crow does not leave home on Kanuma, and families keep it, staying together with the married daughters for one more day before the travel back begins. Women draw the ratham muggu, a chariot in rice flour, at the door, and in many streets run its rope on to the neighbour's chariot so that the whole row becomes one procession sending Sankranti on its way. In Konaseema the day is the Prabhala Teertham at Jaggannathathota, where towering bamboo frames of the Ekadasa Rudras are carried shoulder-high across the fields and the canal.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Kanuma: how it is kept
Keep ready
- turmeric and kumkum
- colours for the horns
- new ropes, bells and flower garlands for the cattle
- bananas and jaggery
- rice, milk and jaggery for the pongali
- rice flour for the ratham muggu
- sheaves of new paddy for the birds
- a harathi plate
The steps
0 of 7 done
What is cooked
The cattle eat first: pongali, bananas, jaggery and the new straw. In coastal Andhra Kanuma is the meat day, with kodi kura (chicken curry) or mutton and minapa garelu; vegetarian homes make garelu and pulihora and finish the Sankranti sweets.
The hour
Clock times for Saturday, 16 January 2027 at Chennai
The whole day after Makara Sankranti; the cattle are decked and worshipped in the morning.
The main rite. The whole day after Makara Sankranti. The cattle are bathed, decked and worshipped in the morning, and the pongali is fed to them before the family eats.
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 Ashtami from previous day 14:14 until 13:44 | then Shukla Navami until next day 12:27 |
| Nakshatra | Ashwini until 23:39 | then Bharani until next day 22:43 |
| Rahu kaal | 09:27 to 10:53 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 13:44 to 15:10 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 06:35 to 08:01 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:56 to 12:41 (0 h 46 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 12:00 | moonset next day 01:00 |
For Saturday, 16 January 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast. The non-vegetarian meal of the festival, which the first two days avoid, is usually eaten on Kanuma.
What is avoided
No journey is begun, as the saying about the crow has it, and the cattle are neither yoked nor worked. The cattle are fed and worshipped before the family eats.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The Telugu counterpart of the Tamil Mattu Pongal, which falls on the same day. Karnataka keeps the cattle day as Kicchu Haisodu with the bonfire the animals are led across.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu keeps the same day as Mattu Pongal, with the jallikattu in the southern districts.
- Telugu (the dates above)
- Andhra and Telangana keep Kanuma as the third day of Sankranti, most fully in the Godavari districts, with the Prabhala Teertham in Konaseema and bullock races in the delta villages; some coastal families keep Mukkanuma, the fourth day, for the meat meal instead.
- Kannada
- Karnataka's cattle day is Kicchu Haisuvudu, kept on Sankranti evening or the day after as the village has it: the cattle, washed, painted and garlanded, are led across a bonfire of straw, an old rite held to keep them free of disease.
The dates above are the Telugu 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
కనుమ పండుగ శుభాకాంక్షలుKanuma panduga shubhakankshalu
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
Temples of Krishna 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.