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
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
- Monday, 25 January 2027
- Sunday, 13 February 2028
- Wednesday, 3 January 2029
Where Sankatahara Chaturthi falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 25 Jan
- 2028: 13 Feb, 19 days later
- 2029: 3 Jan, 41 days earlier
The dates, year by year
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The fourth day of the dark fortnight, kept monthly for Ganesha as the remover of sankata, trouble. The fast runs through the day and is broken only when the moon has been seen and offered water; the twenty-one durva grass and the modakam are given at the evening puja. Falling on a Tuesday it is Angaraka Chaturthi, the one held highest.
- Deity
- Ganesha
- Kind
- Vratam Days kept by a fast or a vow, most of them coming round every lunar month.
Significance
The usual explanation for waiting on the moon goes back to its old mockery of Ganesha: the curse that forbids looking at it on the bright Chaturthi of Bhadrapada was softened, and on the dark Chaturthi of every month the moon is instead looked for and honoured with him. Sankata is trouble, and a Tamil family keeps Sankatahara Chaturthi when something is stuck, an examination, a court case, a marriage that will not settle, and some keep it as a vow for a set number of months in a row. Pillaiyar is the most approachable of the gods, sitting under the arasa maram at the street corner without a priest, so the monthly day belongs as much to the corner shrine as to Pillaiyarpatti and the Uchi Pillaiyar on the Tiruchi rock. The Sankatanashana stotram, which the tradition traces to the Narada Purana, is the text most homes read.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Sankatahara Chaturthi: how it is kept
Keep ready
- arugampul, twenty-one blades or a garland
- erukkam poo
- turmeric for a Pillaiyar, or a small image
- a plantain leaf
- kozhukattai and sundal
- a coconut and bananas
- camphor and a lamp
- a small vessel of water or milk for the moon
The steps
0 of 7 done
What is cooked
Tamil homes make kozhukattai, the sweet kind with coconut and jaggery and the savoury kind with urad dal, and sundal of chickpeas or green gram. Kerala offers modakam and unniyappam, the Telugu country undrallu of rice flour, and Karnataka kadubu; the fast is broken with the offering and a light meal.
The hour
Clock times for Monday, 25 January 2027 at Chennai
The Chaturthi running at MOONRISE, which is the instant the fast is broken at and is computed for the place rather than taken as the sunset; the puja is in the evening and the moon comes up two to three hours after sunset on this tithi.
The main rite. The Krishna Chaturthi running at sunset fixes the day. The Pillaiyar abhishekam is at dusk, and the fast ends only when the moon, which rises late on this tithi, has been seen and given water.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunset | 18:07 | the moment the sun goes down |
| Pradosha kala | 18:07 to 20:31 | the 2 h 24 min after sunset, the evening worship hour |
| Moonrise | 21:03 | the Moon rising at this place, the hour a moonrise vratam is broken |
Sunrise 06:36, sunset 18:07, 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 | Krishna Thritiyai from previous day 10:58 until 08:11 | then Krishna Chaturthi until next day 06:01 |
| Nakshatra | Purva Phalguni until next day 01:03 | then Uttara Phalguni until 2 days later, 00:07 |
| Rahu kaal | 08:02 to 09:29 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 10:55 to 12:21 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 13:48 to 15:14 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:58 to 12:44 (0 h 46 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 21:03 | moonset next day 09:26 |
For Monday, 25 January 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
A single meal after the moonrise, in the strict form nothing at all until then. Modakam, kozhukattai and coconut are offered.
What is avoided
Nothing is eaten before the moon has been seen; on a cloudy night the moonrise of the almanac is taken and water offered toward it. Tulasi is never offered to Pillaiyar, and the day is kept free of non-vegetarian food.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The north calls the same day Sankashti Chaturthi and Angarki when it falls on a Tuesday; Maharashtra keeps it with the largest crowds. The bright-fortnight Chaturthi is a different, gentler day.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu (the dates above)
- Tamil Nadu calls it Sangadahara Chathurthi; the crowds are largest at Pillaiyarpatti and at the Uchi Pillaiyar temple in Tiruchi, and a Tuesday one, Angaraka Chathurthi, is held the strongest.
- Kerala
- Kerala keeps Sankatahara Chathurthi at its Ganapathy temples, Kottarakkara with its unniyappam and Pazhavangadi in Thiruvananthapuram, where coconuts are broken in heaps before the deity.
- Telugu
- The Telugu country calls it Sankashtahara Chaturthi and reads its vratha katha at the evening puja; Kanipakam, the self-born Varasiddhi Vinayaka near Chittoor, is its great shrine.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps Sankashtahara Chaturthi at the Ganapati temples of the coast, Idagunji and Hattiangadi among them, and at home with kadubu and water offered to the rising moon.
The dates above are the Tamil Nadu 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.
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Sankatahara Chaturthi is its day
- Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Sankatahara Chaturthi is its day
Temples of Ganesha 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.
- Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh · Varasiddhi Vinayaka, self-manifest in the well and said to be growing
- Manakula Vinayagar Temple 137 kmPuducherry · Manakula Vinayagar, who would not leave the shore
- Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu · Karpaga Vinayagar, rock-cut, with the trunk turned right
- Anegudde Vinayaka Temple 603 kmKumbashi, Udupi, Karnataka · Vinayaka of Kumbashi, standing with the sword
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.