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
- Friday, 15 January 2027
- Saturday, 15 January 2028
- Sunday, 14 January 2029
Where Makara Sankranti · Sankranthi falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 15 Jan
- 2028: 15 Jan, the same day of the year
- 2029: 14 Jan, 1 day earlier
The days of Sankranti
Part of the same festival, in order, in the Telugu calendar
The dates, year by year
Telugu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The day the Sun enters Makara and turns north, and the three-day harvest festival of the Telugu and Kannada country. Houses are washed and drawn over with muggu and gobbemma, the haridasu and the gangireddu (the decorated bull) come to the door, and the new rice is cooked. Karnataka exchanges ellu-bella, sesame and jaggery, with the words that ask for good words in return.
- Deity
- Surya
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
In the Telugu country Sankranti is simply the Pedda Panduga, the big festival, the one time of the year the married daughters come home with their husbands and children and the house is full for three days. The whole month before it, the Dhanurmasa, has led up to it: the women draw larger muggulu each dawn and set gobbemmalu, balls of cow dung crowned with pumpkin flowers, in the middle of them as the gopikas who waited for Krishna, and the Haridasu walks the streets singing the names of Hari with the brass vessel on his head. On the day itself the new rice is offered to the Sun, and in many families new clothes are laid out for the ancestors before anyone else wears theirs, since the harvest is held to be theirs too. In Karnataka the girls go from house to house with plates of ellu-bella, pieces of sugar-cane and sakkare acchu, figures of moulded sugar, in the round called ellu birodu, and the kites go up over Hyderabad.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Makara Sankranti · Sankranthi: how it is kept
Keep ready
- rice flour and colours for the muggu
- cow dung for the gobbemmalu
- pumpkin flowers
- new rice, milk and jaggery
- sugar-cane
- turmeric, kumkum and flowers
- sesame
- new clothes, and a set for the ancestors where the family offers one
- white sesame, jaggery, dry coconut, fried gram and groundnuts for the ellu-bella
- sakkare acchu
- rice and clothes to give the Haridasu and the gangireddu man
The steps
0 of 7 done
What is cooked
Telugu homes fry ariselu, discs of rice flour and jaggery, days ahead, and make nuvvula undalu (sesame balls), chakkara pongali, pulihora and garelu; Telangana is known for its sakinalu, rice-flour spirals with sesame. Karnataka shares ellu-bella and sakkare acchu, and cooks sakkare pongal and khara pongal, with the sugar-cane and the avarekai of the season.
The hour
Clock times for Friday, 15 January 2027 at Chennai
The day the Sun enters Makara when the ingress is before sunset, otherwise the next day; the offering to the Sun is in the morning.
The main rite. The day the Sun enters Makara, when the ingress is before sunset, otherwise the next day. The bath and the gifts belong to the punya kalam after the ingress, and the new rice is offered to the Sun in the morning.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunset | 18:01 | the moment the sun goes down |
| Pradosha kala | 18:01 to 20:25 | the 2 h 24 min after sunset, the evening worship hour |
Sunrise 06:35, sunset 18:01, 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 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 |
| Sankramana | previous day 21:10 | the instant the sidereal Sun enters the sign, for this place’s clock |
| Punya kala | 06:35 to 12:59 | the ingress fell in the night, so the 16 ghatis are kept from this sunrise; almanacs narrow it by sign |
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. Ariselu, pongali and sesame sweets are made; the sesame and jaggery are shared on Karnataka's ellu-bella plate.
What is avoided
Sankranti itself is kept vegetarian in most homes, the meat meal waiting for Kanuma. Nobody is turned away from the door on this day, and the muggu is not stepped on or swept away before evening.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The same ingress is Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Uttarayan in Gujarat (with kite flying), Maghi in the Punjab, Magh Bihu in Assam and Makaravilakku at Sabarimala. Its civil date barely moves, 14 or 15 January.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu keeps the same day as Pongal, the pot boiled over at sunrise.
- Kerala
- Kerala keeps it as Makaravilakku, the day of the light at Sabarimala.
- Telugu (the dates above)
- Andhra and Telangana keep three days, Bhogi with its bonfire, Sankranti with the new rice and the ancestors, and Kanuma for the cattle, most fully in the Godavari and Krishna delta villages; so many travel home that the roads to the coast are full for days.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps Sankranti with the ellu-bella exchange and the saying that goes with it, ellu bella thindu olle maathaadi, eat sesame and jaggery and speak good words; in the villages the cattle are decked and led across a bonfire, on this evening or the next.
- North India
- The north keeps Makar Sankranti with a dip at Prayag and the rivers, khichdi and gifts of sesame, and Gujarat flies its kites as Uttarayan.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra exchanges tilgul with words asking for sweet speech, and married women hold the haldi-kunku.
- Bengal
- Bengal keeps Poush Sankranti with pithe, rice cakes filled with coconut and date-palm jaggery, and the pilgrimage to Gangasagar.
- Punjab
- The Punjab keeps it as Maghi, the morning after the Lohri bonfire.
- Assam
- Assam keeps Magh Bihu, after the Uruka feast of the night before.
- Sri Lanka
- Sri Lankan Tamils keep the day as Thai Pongal, with the pot boiled over in the courtyard.
- Nepal
- Nepal keeps Maghe Sankranti with ghee, chaku, sesame laddus and boiled yams and sweet potatoes.
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
సంక్రాంతి శుభాకాంక్షలుSankranti shubhakankshalu
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Biraja Temple, Jajpur 1,076 kmOdisha
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Navaratri and the Sankranti baths are its seasons.
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.