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
Bengal calendar, computed for Chennai
- Thursday, 15 April 2027
- Saturday, 15 April 2028
- Sunday, 15 April 2029
Where Poila Boishakh · Nababarsha falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 15 Apr
- 2028: 15 Apr, 1 day later
- 2029: 15 Apr, 1 day earlier
The dates, year by year
Bengal calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The day the Sun enters Mesha, on which the solar calendars of the east and the south begin their year. Bengal opens the halkhata, the new account book, for Poila Boishakh; Assam keeps Bohag Bihu with the cattle and the husori songs; Kerala keeps Vishu, Tamil Nadu Puthandu and Odisha Pana Sankranti. The Punjab keeps Vaisakhi as the harvest and the founding of the Khalsa.
- Deity
- Surya
- Kind
- Observance Days marked, watched or begun, without a fast or a feast of their own.
Significance
Mesha is the sign in which the Sun is exalted, so the solar calendars of the east and the south begin their year with the Sun at its strongest, while the lunar calendars of the north, the Deccan and Maharashtra have already begun theirs at Chaitra Shukla Pratipada. Odisha still calls the day Maha Vishuva Sankranti, from the time, some seventeen centuries ago, when the ingress fell on the spring equinox. It is also the start of the hot season, so the gift of the day is water: a pot of cool water with a hand fan, sattu and jaggery is given away, water stands are opened by the road, and in Odisha a pot with a hole in its base is hung over the tulasi to drip through the summer. At Haridwar the Kumbh is held when the Sun is in Mesha and Jupiter in Kumbha, so in those years the Baisakhi bath at Har ki Pauri is the Kumbh's own great bath. The Bengali year, the Bangabda, is most often said to have been begun under Akbar as a harvest year for collecting the land revenue, though some trace it to Shashanka of Gauda, and traditions vary; that is why the day belongs to the trader and his haal khata as much as to the home. Dhaka opens it at dawn with the Chhayanaut songs under the banyan at Ramna and the Mangal Shobhajatra, and Kolkata with the queues at Kalighat and Dakshineswar to have the new account books blessed.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Poila Boishakh · Nababarsha: how it is kept
Keep ready
- rice paste for the alpana
- new clothes
- a new haal khata bound in red cloth
- sindoor and sandal paste
- a mangal ghat with mango leaves
- images of Ganesha and Lakshmi
- flowers, a lamp and sweets
- boxes of sweets and new calendars for the customers
The steps
0 of 7 done
What is cooked
West Bengal lays a new year lunch of luchi or rice, shukto, dal, begun bhaja, rui or ilish, kosha mangsho, a chutney of raw mango, mishti doi, rosogolla and sandesh; Bangladesh begins the day with panta bhat, the rice soaked overnight, with fried ilish, green chillies, onion and bhorta.
The hour
Clock times for Thursday, 15 April 2027 at Chennai
The day the Sun enters Mesha when the ingress is before sunset, otherwise the next day. Kerala uses the stricter aparahna limit and can differ by one day.
The main rite. The day the Sun enters Mesha when it does so before sunset, otherwise the next day; the bath and the daan belong to the morning of that day, and the new year's first sights and first meal to its first hours. Kerala, Bengal, Assam, Nepal and Sri Lanka each apply their own rule to the same ingress, so their days can differ by one.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Aparahna | 13:24 | the afternoon, three fifths of the daylight after sunrise |
| Sunset | 18:22 | the moment the sun goes down |
| Pradosha kala | 18:22 to 20:46 | the 2 h 24 min after sunset, the evening worship hour |
Sunrise 05:57, sunset 18:22, 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 Navami from previous day 15:24 until 13:21 | then Shukla Dasami until next day 11:22 |
| Nakshatra | Pushya until 09:34 | then Ashlesha until next day 08:18 |
| Rahu kaal | 13:42 to 15:15 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 05:57 to 07:30 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 09:03 to 10:36 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:44 to 12:34 (0 h 50 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 13:23 | moonset next day 02:19 |
| Sankramana | previous day 15:28 | the instant the sidereal Sun enters the sign, for this place’s clock |
| Punya kala | 05:57 to 12:21 | the ingress fell in the night, so the 16 ghatis are kept from this sunrise; almanacs narrow it by sign |
For Thursday, 15 April 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast. Each region keeps its own feast: the Bengali panta bhat and ilish, the Kerala sadya, the Tamil mangai pachadi.
What is avoided
Do not begin the year with a quarrel, a debt paid out, a loan given or harsh words, since the first day is held to set the pattern of the year. Let nothing broken, empty or unclean be the first thing the eyes fall on, and refuse water to no one on the day it is given away.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The North Indian lunar year has already turned at Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, a fortnight earlier, so the north marks this day only in passing. Vaisakhi is dated by the Nanakshahi calendar and can fall a day off the sankranti. Bengal opens the halkhata, the new account book, at the shop with a Ganesh and Lakshmi puja and sweets for every customer, and the Mangal Shobhajatra walks through Dhaka with its huge masks. West Bengal reckons the ingress by the Surya Siddhanta and Bangladesh has kept the day fixed at 14 April since 1966, so the two can differ.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu keeps the day as Puthandu, the Tamil new year, with the kani and the new panchangam.
- Kerala
- Kerala keeps it as Vishu, with the Vishukkani and the kaineettam.
- Kannada
- The Tulu coast of Karnataka keeps it as Bisu, the Tulu new year.
- North India
- The north marks the day as Baisakhi in Haryana, Himachal and Jammu, with the rabi harvest, the melas and the great bath at Har ki Pauri in Haridwar; Bihar keeps Satuan with sattu and raw mango, Mithila keeps Jur Sital, Kumaon keeps Bikhauti, and Odisha keeps Pana Sankranti, the Odia new year, with the pana and the close of the Danda Nata.
- Bengal (the dates above)
- West Bengal takes the ingress by the Surya Siddhanta and Bangladesh keeps the day fixed, so the two can part by a day; in both the haal khata opens with a Ganesha and Lakshmi puja, Dhaka walks the Mangal Shobhajatra with its huge masks, and Kolkata queues at Kalighat with its account books.
- Punjab
- The Punjab keeps Vaisakhi, the wheat harvest and the founding of the Khalsa.
- Assam
- Assam keeps Bohag Bihu, the seven days of the spring Bihu.
- Sri Lanka
- Sri Lanka keeps the Sinhala and Tamil New Year by the almanac's nakath.
- Nepal
- Nepal turns the Bikram Sambat year on Baisakh 1.
The dates above are the Bengal 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
শুভ নববর্ষShubho Noboborsho
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Kollam, Kerala
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Mandalam and the Meena Vishu festival are its seasons.
- Ananthapura Lake Temple 576 kmKumbla, Kasaragod, Kerala
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Vishu is its day.
- Kollam, Kerala
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Meena Vishu and the Mandalam season are its days.
- Pathanamthitta, Kerala
The gazetteer line names the day as the edge of this temple’s open season. Open in Mandala-Makaravilakku (mid-November to mid-January), the first five days of each Malayalam month and Vishu
1 more temple in this gazetteer is recorded for the day. Find temples near you.
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.
- Vakratunda Mahakaya
- Lakshmi Ashtottaram (the 108 names)
A name without a link is a long reading, read in full from the family’s own copy or at the place of worship; the library prints the shorter prayers.
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.