Festival Surya
Ratha Saptami · Magha Saptami
The seventh day of the bright fortnight of Magha, held to be the day the Sun's chariot turns north and, in the Tirumala calendar, the day the deity is taken out on seven vahanams from dawn to night.
Ratha Saptami · Magha Saptami 2027 falls on Saturday, 13 February, 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
Telugu calendar, computed for Chennai
- Saturday, 13 February 2027
- Thursday, 3 February 2028
- Monday, 22 January 2029
Where Ratha Saptami · Magha Saptami falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 13 Feb
- 2028: 3 Feb, 10 days earlier
- 2029: 22 Jan, 12 days earlier
The dates, year by year
Telugu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The seventh day of the bright fortnight of Magha, held to be the day the Sun's chariot turns north and, in the Tirumala calendar, the day the deity is taken out on seven vahanams from dawn to night. It is kept as the Sun's birthday: the household bathes at dawn with arka (jilledu) leaves on the head and the shoulders and offers the first pongali to the rising Sun.
- Deity
- Surya
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Magha Shukla Saptami is held to be the day the Sun, the son of Aditi and Kashyapa, was born and first took his seat on the chariot of seven horses that Aruna drives, and the seven arka leaves on the head and shoulders at the bath are for those seven horses and for the wrongs of seven births the bath is said to wash away. The arka, jilledu in Telugu and ekka in Kannada, is the Sun's own plant, and like the Sun it is held to draw out illness, which is why the day is kept for health as much as for devotion. Telugu homes make a small chariot of chikkudu beans, the flat beans of the season, and offer the first milk pongali to the rising Sun on chikkudu leaves, cooked in the open on a fire of cow-dung cakes. At Arasavalli in Srikakulam, the old Sun temple of Andhra, and at Tirumala, where the deity rides seven vahanams in one day, the crowds are the largest of the year.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Ratha Saptami · Magha Saptami: how it is kept
Keep ready
- seven arka (jilledu, ekka) leaves for each person
- regu pallu (jujube fruits) and akshintalu
- a copper vessel for the arghyam
- a new earthen pot
- cow-dung cakes for the fire
- new rice, milk and jaggery
- chikkudu leaves and beans with thin sticks
- red flowers and red sandal paste
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
Telugu homes cook paramannam or pongali of new rice, milk and jaggery in the open, with chalimidi, and serve it on chikkudu leaves; many add a curry of chikkudu beans to the day's meal. Kannada homes offer payasa or sakkare pongal to the Sun after the ekka-leaf bath.
The hour
Clock times for Saturday, 13 February 2027 at Chennai
The bath is at arunodaya, before sunrise, with the Saptami running; the offering is made to the Sun as it rises.
The main rite. The bath is at arunodaya, before sunrise, with the Saptami running, and the pongali is offered to the Sun as it rises. At Tirumala the vahanams begin at dawn.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Arunodaya | 04:56 | the 96 minutes before sunrise, the hour of the oil bath |
| Sunrise | 06:32 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
Sunrise 06:32, sunset 18:14, 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 03:00 until next day 02:07 | then Shukla Ashtami until 2 days later, 00:42 |
| Nakshatra | Bharani until next day 05:38 | then Krittika until 2 days later, 04:47 |
| Rahu kaal | 09:28 to 10:55 (1 h 28 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 13:51 to 15:19 (1 h 28 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 06:32 to 08:00 (1 h 28 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 12:00 to 12:47 (0 h 47 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 10:43 | moonset 23:50 |
For Saturday, 13 February 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
A light fast until the morning offering, broken with the chalimidi and the pongali cooked in the open on new earthenware.
What is avoided
The bath is not put off to after sunrise, and nothing is eaten before the offering to the Sun. Many keep the day's meal without salt, as the Sun's vratams often are.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Tirumala keeps the largest Ratha Saptami; the Tamil calendar marks the same tithi quietly, and the north keeps it as Achala Saptami and Surya Jayanti.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil homes keep it quietly with the erukku-leaf bath and a kolam of the chariot at the door.
- Telugu (the dates above)
- Andhra and Telangana keep it with the jilledu bath, the chikkudu chariot and the pongali cooked in the open; Arasavalli's Suryanarayana temple in Srikakulam and the Tirumala day of seven vahanams draw the largest crowds.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps Ratha Saptami with the ekka-leaf bath at dawn, and schools and yoga groups gather in the morning for rounds of surya namaskara.
- North India
- The north keeps it as Achala Saptami or Surya Jayanti, with a dawn bath in a river and offerings to the Sun.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra boils milk in the courtyard until it spills over towards the Sun, and the haldi-kunku season that opened at Sankranti closes today.
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
రథ సప్తమి శుభాకాంక్షలుRatha Saptami shubhakankshalu
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Suryanar Koil 248 kmAduthurai, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Sunday, and Rathasapthami in Thai, are its days
- Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Ratha Saptami in Magha is its great day.
- Maharashtra
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. The Karaveer kshetram where the sun’s rays fall on the Devi for three days each in Ratha Saptami season (Kiranotsav).
- Konark Sun Temple 979 kmPuri, Odisha
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. no daily pooja now, but Magha Saptami still brings a sunrise bath at Chandrabhaga.
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.
Fixing a day for it
The muhurtham rules for a puja held alongside, whose day the family chooses
Ratha Saptami · Magha Saptami's own date is set by the rule in "The hour" above, and no muhurtham moves it. For a temple visit around it, whose day the family does choose, the finder below applies these rules.
A temple visit, or the first darshan at a new temple. No weekday is ruled out: Tuesday belongs to Murugan and the Amman, Saturday to Perumal and Sani, so the day usually follows the deity rather than the almanac. Ashtami and Chaturdasi are the two tithis held back for darshan, with the standing exceptions of Sivaratri on Krishna Chaturdasi and Kala Bhairava Ashtami, which are kept on those very days. Rahu kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika kaal are not scored here; the panchangam page prints them for the day you pick, and most families simply wait them out.
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.