Magh Bihu · Bhogali Bihu Festival The day the Sun enters Makara and begins the northward half of the year, and the one major Indian festival fixed by the Sun rather than the Moon.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Magh Bihu · Bhogali Bihu
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.
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
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
What the day is
The day the Sun enters Makara and begins the northward half of the year, and the one major Indian festival fixed by the Sun rather than the Moon. Til and gur are eaten and given away, a bath in a river is taken at dawn, and Gujarat covers the sky with kites; the Ganga Sagar mela in Bengal and the Magh Mela bathing at Prayagraj fall on it.
- Deity
- Surya, Shani
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
The day the Sun enters Makara when the ingress is before sunset, otherwise the next day; the bath and the daan are at dawn.
The fast
No fast. Til-gur laddu, khichdi and sesame sweets are the food; khichdi, blankets and sesame are the customary gifts.
Where the regions differ
Uttarayan in Gujarat, Maghi in the Punjab, Khichdi in Uttar Pradesh, Magh Bihu in Assam, Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Sankranthi in the Telugu country and Makaravilakku at Sabarimala. Its civil date barely moves: 14 or 15 January. Assam keeps Magh Bihu the day after the sankranti, because its month begins the day after the ingress: the meji, a tower of bamboo and thatch built in the cut field, is burnt at dawn and the ashes scattered, and pitha, laru and curd are eaten after a night in the bhelaghar.
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.