Festival Surya, Shani
Poush Sankranti · Makar Sankranti
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.
Poush Sankranti · Makar Sankranti 2027 falls on Friday, 15 January, 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
Bengal calendar, computed for Chennai
- Friday, 15 January 2027
- Saturday, 15 January 2028
- Sunday, 14 January 2029
Where Poush Sankranti · Makar Sankranti 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 dates, year by year
Bengal calendar, computed for Chennai
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.
Significance
Uttarayana, the Sun's northward half of the year, is the day of the gods, and the Mahabharata has Bhishma lying on his bed of arrows until it began before he would let himself die, so dying in it and beginning things in it have been held auspicious ever since. Makara is the sign of Shani, and the story told over the til is that Surya went to his son's house on this day and put their old quarrel aside; sesame is Shani's grain, and giving it away with gur is a wish that bitterness end in sweetness. The sidereal Sun now reaches Makara more than three weeks after the winter solstice, so the turn is kept by the zodiac of the almanac rather than by the sky, and the date drifts a day later every seventy years or so. For the farmer of the north it falls between the sowing and the cutting of the rabi crop, and for the south and the east it is the harvest itself, which is why one day wears so many names. Bengal keeps the last day of Poush as Poush Parbon, the pithe festival of the aman harvest and the new date palm jaggery, and pilgrims crowd Sagar Island, where the Ganga brought down by Bhagiratha is said to have reached the ashes of Sagara's sixty thousand sons at the ashram of Kapila and freed them. It is also the close of the Tusu parab of the western districts and the day of the Baul gathering at Kenduli.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Poush Sankranti · Makar Sankranti: how it is kept
Keep ready
- new rice flour
- grated coconut
- nolen gur, the date palm jaggery
- milk for the kheer and the puli
- new straw with its ears of paddy for the aouni-baouni
- a lamp and Ganga water
- banana leaves for the steamed pithe
The steps
0 of 7 done
What is cooked
Bengal makes patishapta, dudh puli, bhapa pithe, chitoi pithe with nolen gur, gokul pithe, saru chakli and the payesh of new rice and nolen gur; Bangladesh makes much the same with khejur gur, and Old Dhaka feasts on its rooftops for Shakrain.
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 bath and the daan are at dawn.
The main rite. The Makara sankranti day, the last day of Poush in the Bengali calendar: the bath is at dawn, the Tusu goes into the water in the morning, and the pithe are made through the day.
| 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. Til-gur laddu, khichdi and sesame sweets are the food; khichdi, blankets and sesame are the customary gifts.
What is avoided
Do not let the sankranti morning pass in sleep: the bath and the daan belong to its first hours, and in homes that keep the rule nothing is eaten before them. Fly kites only with cotton thread, never the glass-coated or nylon manja that kills birds and cuts riders on the road, and stop at dusk when the birds come home. On a day kept for sweet speech, no harsh word and no quarrel.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
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. Bengal keeps the last day of Poush with the pithe and puli of new date palm jaggery, and the Ganga Sagar mela opens where the river meets the sea at Sagar Island, the largest gathering of the Bengali year after Durga Puja.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu keeps the same ingress as Thai Pongal, the pot boiled over for the Sun on Thai 1, with Bhogi before and Mattu Pongal after.
- Kerala
- Kerala marks the ingress as Makaram 1, the evening of the Makaravilakku at Sabarimala, when the jyothi is seen on the hill.
- Telugu
- Andhra and Telangana keep it as Sankranti, the Pedda Panduga of three days, with the muggulu, the gobbemmalu and the daughters home.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps Sankranti with ellu-bella, the mix of sesame, jaggery, coconut and groundnut exchanged between houses, and in the villages of Mandya and Mysuru the cattle are made to leap over a fire of straw, the kichchu haayisuvudu.
- North India
- The Hindi belt keeps it as Khichdi or Sakraat: pilgrims bathe at the Sangam at the opening of the Magh Mela, the Gorakhnath temple at Gorakhpur receives khichdi from lakhs, Bihar eats dahi-chura and tilkut, Gujarat and Jaipur spend Uttarayan on the roofs with kites and Gujarat plays on through the Vasi Uttarayan next day, Himachal keeps Magha Saaji and Kumaon keeps Ghughutiya.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra keeps Makar Sankrant between Bhogi and Kinkrant: tilgul goes from hand to hand, women wear black, the one festival of the year for it, and the haldi-kunku with the vaan runs from here to Rathasaptami; a child's first Sankrant brings the bornahan and a bride's first brings halwyache dagine, jewellery of sugar-coated sesame.
- Bengal (the dates above)
- Bengal keeps Poush Sankranti in every home with the pithe, at Sagar Island with the Gangasagar mela, in Purulia, Bankura and Jhargram with the close of Tusu, and at Kenduli in Birbhum with the Joydeb mela of the Bauls; Old Dhaka keeps the same day as Shakrain, with kites flown from every rooftop and fire-breathing after dark.
- Punjab
- The Punjab keeps the day as Maghi, the morning after the Lohri fire, with the dip at Sri Muktsar Sahib and the kheer of sugar cane juice.
- Assam
- Assam keeps Magh Bihu a day later, after the Uruka feast of the night before, with the meji burnt at dawn.
- Sri Lanka
- Sri Lanka's Tamils keep the same day as Thai Pongal, a public holiday across the island.
- Nepal
- Nepal keeps Maghe Sankranti with chaku, ghee, til laddoo and yam, and the bath at Devghat.
- Gujarat
- Gujarat keeps it as Uttarayan and spends it on the roofs: the sky over Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat fills with kites from dawn, til-gor ladu and undhiyu are eaten, and the kites go up again on Vasi Uttarayan the next day.
- Odisha
- Odisha offers the makara chaula, new rice mixed uncooked with coconut, banana, jaggery and chhena, and holds its melas at Konark, Dhabaleswar and the Kalijai island in Chilika.
- Tulu Nadu
- Tulu Nadu keeps it as Ponni 1, the first sunrise after the ingress, so it falls the day after the Pongal of Tamil Nadu whenever the ingress is before sunset.
- Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh
- Eastern Jharkhand and the Purulia border keep the same sankranti as Tusu Parab, carrying the Tusu to the river after a month of songs, and Chhattisgarh keeps it with the til laddoo and the khichdi.
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
পৌষ সংক্রান্তির শুভেচ্ছাPoush Sankrantir shubhechha
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Bakreshwar Temple and hot springs 1,415 kmBirbhum, West Bengal
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Maha Sivaratri and Makar Sankranti are its days.
- Kankalitala Shakti Peetha 1,419 kmBirbhum, West Bengal
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Kali Puja and the Makar Sankranti mela are its days.
- Gorakhnath Temple, Gorakhpur 1,555 kmUttar Pradesh
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Makar Sankranti and the Khichdi Mela are its days.
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.
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.