Rang Panchami Festival The fifth day of the dark fortnight of Phalgun, the day Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh play the colours.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Rang Panchami
- हिन्दी
- रंग पंचमी
- मराठी
- रंगपंचमी
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 fifth day of the dark fortnight of Phalgun, the day Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh play the colours. The bonfire was lit five days earlier on the Holi Pournima and the gulal waits until now; Indore takes out the gair, a procession with tanks of coloured water thrown from a height, and the Konkan plays it with the shimga songs and the palkhi. The colour is thrown at the deity first, which is what the name of the day means.
- Deity
- Krishna, Radha
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
Phalgun vadya Panchami at sunrise; the colours are played through the morning and the visiting follows in the afternoon.
The fast
No fast. Puran poli and shrikhand are the food, and thandai in the Malwa towns.
Where the regions differ
Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh play on the fifth day; the north plays on Dhulandi, the morning after the bonfire, which is five days earlier. Traditions vary within Maharashtra, and the Vidarbha districts often keep the northern day.
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.