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
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
- Tuesday, 17 August 2027
- Saturday, 5 August 2028
- Friday, 24 August 2029
Where Raksha Bandhan · Rakhi falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 17 Aug
- 2028: 5 Aug, 11 days earlier
- 2029: 24 Aug, 18 days later
The dates, year by year
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The full moon of Shravana, when a sister ties a rakhi on her brother's wrist and he promises to look after her. The same day is the Upakarma, when the sacred thread is changed, and in coastal Maharashtra it is Narali Purnima, when a coconut is given to the sea before the fishing boats go out again.
- Deity
- Vishnu, Lakshmi, Varuna
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
The oldest telling is of Indrani tying a protective thread on Indra's wrist before his battle with the asuras, and the mantra the priest says as he ties a raksha sutra still recalls the thread that bound the demon king Bali; the popular story adds that Lakshmi tied one on Bali's wrist to win Vishnu back from his service. The story north Indian children hear is Draupadi's: when Krishna cut his finger she tore the edge of her sari to bind it, and he repaid that strip of cloth when she was dragged into the dice hall. The thread was first the priest's to tie on his patron, and in many homes the pandit still comes round with a raksha sutra for every wrist, but in the Hindi belt it became above all a sister's claim on her brother's care, and his on her prayers. Cousins, neighbours' sons and friends with no sister of their own are tied a rakhi too, which is how the day makes family of people who were not born to it.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Raksha Bandhan · Rakhi: how it is kept
Keep ready
- rakhis for each brother, and a lumba rakhi for the bhabhi
- a rakhi thali
- roli and akshat
- a small ghee diya
- mithai: ghewar, kaju katli or laddoos
- a lota of water
- a coconut, if the family uses one
- a handkerchief or cap for the brother's head
- the brother's gift
The steps
0 of 9 done
What is cooked
Ghewar is the sweet of Sawan from Jaipur to Delhi and every sweet shop sells it for rakhi, with kaju katli, motichoor laddoos and malpua; the meal is puri, kachori, dum aloo, kheer or sevai and raita. Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar make sevai and dalpuri, the Konkan coast narali bhaat for Narali Purnima, and Nepal its kwati soup of nine beans for Janai Purnima.
The hour
Clock times for Tuesday, 17 August 2027 at Chennai
Shravana Purnima at sunrise; the rakhi is tied during the day, and most almanacs name the Bhadra hour of that morning as the one to keep clear of.
The main rite. Shravana Purnima; the rakhi is tied in the daytime once the Bhadra period the almanac names has passed, in the afternoon, the aparahna, where it allows. When Bhadra covers most of the day, families follow the almanac's hour, which may be the evening.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 05:57 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
Sunrise 05:57, sunset 18:29, 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 Pournami from previous day 10:29 until 12:59 | then Krishna Prathamai until next day 15:16 |
| Nakshatra | Dhanishta until next day 02:32 | then Shatabhisha until 2 days later, 05:15 |
| Rahu kaal | 15:21 to 16:55 (1 h 34 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 09:05 to 10:39 (1 h 34 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 12:13 to 13:47 (1 h 34 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:48 to 12:38 (0 h 50 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 18:32 | moonset next day 06:32 |
For Tuesday, 17 August 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
Many sisters fast until the rakhi is tied. The meal after is a feast; ghewar and coconut sweets are the ones of the season.
What is avoided
The rakhi is not tied during the Bhadra period, nor in Rahu kaal where the family follows it. Black thread and black clothes are avoided, and an old rakhi is never thrown out with the rubbish.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The rakhi is the northern and western face of the day; Tamil, Telugu and Kannada families keep the same full moon for the Upakarma, and Odisha keeps Gamha Purnima for the cattle.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil families keep the day as Aavani Avittam, the changing of the poonal, and the rakhi is a newer custom of the cities.
- Telugu
- The Telugu country keeps the full moon as Jandhyala Pournami for the Upakarma, and as Rakhi Pournami for the rakhi, which has grown common there.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps the Upakarma on it, and the towns tie the rakhi more every year.
- North India (the dates above)
- The Hindi belt keeps the rakhi as the heart of the day, with ghewar, the lumba rakhi of the Marwari homes and the Shravani Upakarma for those with the janeu; Kumaon changes the thread at Janopunyu the same morning, and Devidhura holds its Bagwal fair.
- Maharashtra
- The Konkan coast keeps Narali Purnima, giving a coconut to the sea before the boats go out, and ties the rakhi as well; inland Maharashtra keeps only the rakhi.
- Bengal
- Bengal keeps the full moon as Jhulan Purnima, the last night of Krishna's swing festival, and ties the rakhi as Rakhi Purnima, a custom that carries the memory of 1905, when Tagore had Hindus and Muslims tie rakhis on each other against the partition of Bengal.
- Punjab
- The Punjab calls it Rakhri and keeps it as a brothers' and sisters' day like the rest of the north, with the rakhri tied and the meal eaten together.
- Nepal
- Nepal keeps Janai Purnima with the yellow doro tied on the wrist by a priest and the kwati soup; sisters tie rakhis in the Terai.
- Sindhi
- A Sindhi house counts its own two days from this full moon: Teejri three days after it and Thadri four days after that, both in the dark fortnight this moon opens. The rakhi itself is tied as the north ties it.
- Himachal · Uttarakhand
- Kumaon calls the full moon Janopunyu and changes the sacred thread on it, and the same morning the Bagwal is fought at Devidhura in Champawat, which is kept under its own key here. The rakhi is tied as the north ties it.
The dates above are the North India 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
रक्षाबंधन की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएंRakshabandhan ki hardik shubhkamnayein
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
Temples of Vishnu and Lakshmi 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.