Festival Chandra, Lakshmi, Krishna
Sharad Purnima · Kojagari
The full moon of Ashwina, the brightest of the year, on which the moon is held to have all sixteen kalas and to drop amrit on what is left out under it.
Sharad Purnima · Kojagari 2027 falls on Thursday, 14 October, 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
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
- Thursday, 14 October 2027
- Monday, 2 October 2028
- Sunday, 21 October 2029
Where Sharad Purnima · Kojagari falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 14 Oct
- 2028: 2 Oct, 11 days earlier
- 2029: 21 Oct, 18 days later
The dates, year by year
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The full moon of Ashwina, the brightest of the year, on which the moon is held to have all sixteen kalas and to drop amrit on what is left out under it. Kheer is set on the terrace in the moonlight and eaten at midnight or the next morning; Bengal and Odisha keep it as Kojagari Lakshmi Puja, staying awake because Lakshmi asks who is awake.
- Deity
- Chandra, Lakshmi, Krishna
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
The kheer is the heart of the northern night: milk, a little rice and sugar cooked slowly, set out in a silver, glass or earthen bowl under a fine cloth in the open moonlight, and eaten at midnight or at dawn as a prasad held to cool and heal. Ayurveda gives the same reasoning in plainer words, for the heat of the Sharad season has built up in the body and cool milk under a cool moon is the old remedy for it. In Braj this is the night of the Maha Raas, when Krishna's flute called the gopis out of their homes and he danced with each of them in the moonlit groves, as the Bhagavata tells in its five chapters of the Rasa. It is also Valmiki Jayanti, the birthday of the poet of the Ramayana, and the vrat katha read in the evening is of a moneylender's two daughters, the one who kept the full-moon fast whole and the one who broke it halfway and lost her children until her sister's merit brought them back. Families keep the night because it is the loveliest of the year, and because it turns the house from the monsoon towards Kartik and the lamps.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Sharad Purnima · Kojagari: how it is kept
Keep ready
- full-cream milk, rice and sugar for the kheer
- cardamom, saffron and dry fruit
- a silver, glass or earthen bowl
- a thin muslin cloth
- a lota of water with milk, rice and white flowers for the arghya
- white flowers and a ghee lamp
- a picture of Lakshmi or of Krishna
- a needle and white thread
The steps
0 of 7 done
What is cooked
The kheer set out in the moonlight is the offering all over the north, eaten cold the next morning in many homes; Braj gives the same kheer at the temples, and Gujarat eats doodh pauva, beaten rice soaked in sweetened milk. Bengal offers Lakshmi narkel naru, chirer moa, khoi and fruit, Maharashtra drinks masala doodh boiled down with saffron and nuts after the moon has been seen in it, and Assam offers pitha and sweets.
The hour
Clock times for Thursday, 14 October 2027 at Chennai
The Purnima running at nishita, true midnight, because the kheer is set out in the moonlight of that night; this can put it a day before the Purnima that holds the sunrise.
The main rite. The Purnima that runs at midnight: the kheer goes out under the moon after moonrise and is brought in at midnight or at dawn, and the Lakshmi puja and the arghya to the moon are done in the evening while the moon climbs.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 05:59 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
| Nishita | 23:55 | true midnight, the midpoint of sunset and the next sunrise |
Sunrise 05:59, sunset 17:51, 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 Chaturdasi from previous day 17:49 until 18:50 | then Shukla Pournami until next day 19:17 |
| Nakshatra | Uttara Bhadrapada until 22:31 | then Revati until next day 23:30 |
| Rahu kaal | 13:24 to 14:53 (1 h 29 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 05:59 to 07:28 (1 h 29 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 08:57 to 10:26 (1 h 29 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:31 to 12:19 (0 h 47 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 16:54 | moonset next day 05:31 |
For Thursday, 14 October 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
Many keep the day on fruit and milk and break the fast with the moonlit kheer. In Braj the Sharad Purnima is the night of the Maha Raas.
What is avoided
Those who fast leave salt and heavy food aside, and the kheer is neither left uncovered nor eaten before it has stood in the moonlight. Houses that keep the Kojagari waking do not sleep before midnight.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Kojagari Lakshmi Puja in Bengal and Odisha, Kaumudi Utsav in the east, Raas Purnima in Braj and Gujarat, and the day the Ayyappa season is looked forward to in the south. The south keeps it lightly.
In other regions
- North India (the dates above)
- The Hindi belt sets the kheer on the roof and hears the katha; Vrindavan and Mathura keep the Maha Raas with the deities dressed in white and the Raas Lila played through the night, and the Valmiki temples keep the poet's jayanti.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra keeps it as Kojagiri Purnima, with the masala milk drunk at midnight and the eldest child of the family honoured with an aukshan.
- Bengal
- Bengal keeps the night as Kojagari Lakshmi Puja, the alpana of the goddess's feet drawn from the door inward and the panchali read aloud by the women.
- Punjab
- The Punjab keeps the same full moon as Valmiki Jayanti, the Pargat Divas, with processions through the towns and the fair at Ram Tirath near Amritsar, held to be the site of Valmiki's ashram.
- Assam
- Assam keeps Kojagari Lakshmi Puja in the homes, with lamps at the door and the night kept awake.
- Nepal
- Nepal keeps the full moon as Kojagrat Purnima, the last day of Bada Dashain, and the night is kept awake for Lakshmi.
- Gujarat
- Gujarat keeps Sharad Punam with the doodh-poha set out under the moon and the raas danced at Dwarka and Dakor until it is light.
- Odisha
- Odisha keeps it as Kumar Purnima, the unmarried girls keeping the janhi osha for Kartikeya, offering the chanda to the moon with podapitha and playing the puchi and the kaudi games through the night.
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
शरद पूर्णिमा की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएंSharad Purnima ki hardik shubhkamnayein
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
Temples of Lakshmi and Krishna 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.
Fixing a day for it
The muhurtham rules for a puja held alongside, whose day the family chooses
Sharad Purnima · Kojagari's own date is set by the rule in "The hour" above, and no muhurtham moves it. For a satyanarayana puja around it, whose day the family does choose, the finder below applies these rules.
The Satyanarayana vratam and katha at home. Pournami is the day of the vratam and Ekadasi the next best; Kartika Pournami, Vaishakha Pournami and the Sankranti days are the ones most families choose. Thursday, the day of Guru, comes first among the weekdays, and Tuesday is the one usually passed over. The puja is done in the evening and the prasadam shared after the katha, so no lagna window is computed here.
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.