Observance Surya
Solar new year · Poila Boishakh · Vishu · Puthandu
The day the Sun enters Mesha, on which the solar calendars of the east and the south begin their year.
Solar new year · Poila Boishakh · Vishu · Puthandu 2027 falls on Wednesday, 14 April, 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
- Wednesday, 14 April 2027
- Friday, 14 April 2028
- Saturday, 14 April 2029
Where Solar new year · Poila Boishakh · Vishu · Puthandu falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 14 Apr
- 2028: 14 Apr, 1 day later
- 2029: 14 Apr, 1 day earlier
The dates, year by year
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The day the Sun enters Mesha, on which the solar calendars of the east and the south begin their year. Bengal opens the halkhata, the new account book, for Poila Boishakh; Assam keeps Bohag Bihu with the cattle and the husori songs; Kerala keeps Vishu, Tamil Nadu Puthandu and Odisha Pana Sankranti. The Punjab keeps Vaisakhi as the harvest and the founding of the Khalsa.
- Deity
- Surya
- Kind
- Observance Days marked, watched or begun, without a fast or a feast of their own.
Significance
Mesha is the sign in which the Sun is exalted, so the solar calendars of the east and the south begin their year with the Sun at its strongest, while the lunar calendars of the north, the Deccan and Maharashtra have already begun theirs at Chaitra Shukla Pratipada. Odisha still calls the day Maha Vishuva Sankranti, from the time, some seventeen centuries ago, when the ingress fell on the spring equinox. It is also the start of the hot season, so the gift of the day is water: a pot of cool water with a hand fan, sattu and jaggery is given away, water stands are opened by the road, and in Odisha a pot with a hole in its base is hung over the tulasi to drip through the summer. At Haridwar the Kumbh is held when the Sun is in Mesha and Jupiter in Kumbha, so in those years the Baisakhi bath at Har ki Pauri is the Kumbh's own great bath.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Solar new year · Poila Boishakh · Vishu · Puthandu: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a new earthen pot
- a hand fan
- sattu and jaggery
- raw mangoes and new wheat
- neem leaves
- a copper lota
- red flowers and akshat
- new clothes
- a lamp
- the new almanac
- a new account book, for a trading family
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh eat sattu with raw mango chutney and jaggery; Odisha drinks pana, a cool drink of bael or curd, chhena, jaggery and fruit; the Punjab and Haryana eat the new wheat, meethe chawal and kadhi; Bengal feasts on fish and sweets, Assam on pitha and the dish of many greens, Kerala on the Vishu sadya, Tamil Nadu on mangai pachadi, Sri Lanka on kiribath and kavum, and Nepal on a family feast after the temple.
The hour
Clock times for Wednesday, 14 April 2027 at Chennai
The day the Sun enters Mesha when the ingress is before sunset, otherwise the next day. Kerala uses the stricter aparahna limit and can differ by one day.
The main rite. The day the Sun enters Mesha when it does so before sunset, otherwise the next day; the bath and the daan belong to the morning of that day, and the new year's first sights and first meal to its first hours. Kerala, Bengal, Assam, Nepal and Sri Lanka each apply their own rule to the same ingress, so their days can differ by one.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Aparahna | 13:24 | the afternoon, three fifths of the daylight after sunrise |
| Sunset | 18:22 | the moment the sun goes down |
| Pradosha kala | 18:22 to 20:46 | the 2 h 24 min after sunset, the evening worship hour |
Sunrise 05:57, sunset 18:22, 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 Ashtami from previous day 17:29 until 15:24 | then Shukla Navami until next day 13:21 |
| Nakshatra | Punarvasu until 10:53 | then Pushya until next day 09:34 |
| Rahu kaal | 12:09 to 13:42 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 07:30 to 09:03 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 10:36 to 12:09 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:45 to 12:34 (0 h 50 min) | the midday muhurta, not counted on a Wednesday |
| Moonrise | 12:23 | moonset next day 01:32 |
| Sankramana | 15:28 | the instant the sidereal Sun enters the sign, for this place’s clock |
| Punya kala | 09:04 to 18:22 | 16 ghatis either side of the sankramana, the daylight part of it; almanacs narrow it by sign |
For Wednesday, 14 April 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast. Each region keeps its own feast: the Bengali panta bhat and ilish, the Kerala sadya, the Tamil mangai pachadi.
What is avoided
Do not begin the year with a quarrel, a debt paid out, a loan given or harsh words, since the first day is held to set the pattern of the year. Let nothing broken, empty or unclean be the first thing the eyes fall on, and refuse water to no one on the day it is given away.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The North Indian lunar year has already turned at Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, a fortnight earlier, so the north marks this day only in passing. Vaisakhi is dated by the Nanakshahi calendar and can fall a day off the sankranti.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu keeps the day as Puthandu, the Tamil new year, with the kani and the new panchangam.
- Kerala
- Kerala keeps it as Vishu, with the Vishukkani and the kaineettam.
- Kannada
- The Tulu coast of Karnataka keeps it as Bisu, the Tulu new year.
- North India (the dates above)
- The north marks the day as Baisakhi in Haryana, Himachal and Jammu, with the rabi harvest, the melas and the great bath at Har ki Pauri in Haridwar; Bihar keeps Satuan with sattu and raw mango, Mithila keeps Jur Sital, Kumaon keeps Bikhauti, and Odisha keeps Pana Sankranti, the Odia new year, with the pana and the close of the Danda Nata.
- Bengal
- Bengal keeps Poila Boishakh, the halkhata and the new year feast.
- Punjab
- The Punjab keeps Vaisakhi, the wheat harvest and the founding of the Khalsa.
- Assam
- Assam keeps Bohag Bihu, the seven days of the spring Bihu.
- Sri Lanka
- Sri Lanka keeps the Sinhala and Tamil New Year by the almanac's nakath.
- Nepal
- Nepal turns the Bikram Sambat year on Baisakh 1.
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
बैसाखी की शुभकामनाएँBaisakhi ki shubhkamnayein
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Kollam, Kerala
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Mandalam and the Meena Vishu festival are its seasons.
- Ananthapura Lake Temple 576 kmKumbla, Kasaragod, Kerala
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Vishu is its day.
- Kollam, Kerala
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Meena Vishu and the Mandalam season are its days.
- Pathanamthitta, Kerala
The gazetteer line names the day as the edge of this temple’s open season. Open in Mandala-Makaravilakku (mid-November to mid-January), the first five days of each Malayalam month and Vishu
1 more temple in this gazetteer is recorded for the day. Find temples near you.
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.