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
Punjab calendar, computed for Chennai
- Wednesday, 14 April 2027
- Thursday, 13 April 2028
- Friday, 13 April 2029
Where Vaisakhi falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 14 Apr
- 2028: 13 Apr, the same day of the year
- 2029: 13 Apr, 1 day earlier
The dates, year by year
Punjab 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. For the Sikh Panth Vaisakhi is the day in 1699 when Guru Gobind Singh, before the sangat at Anandpur Sahib, called for five who would give their heads, initiated the Panj Pyare with Khande di Pahul, and then asked them to give him amrit in turn, founding the Khalsa. For the farmers of the Punjab, Sikh and Hindu alike, it is also the day the wheat is ready for the sickle, and the fairs and the bhangra are the harvest's.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Vaisakhi: how it is kept
Keep ready
- new clothes and a head covering
- a rumala for the Guru Granth Sahib, where the family offers one
- wheat flour, ghee and sugar in equal parts, for a family offering karah prashad
- a new chola for the Nishan Sahib, where the sangat offers it
- flowers and garlands for the palki of the nagar kirtan
- a dhol for the mela
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
Karah prashad of wheat flour, ghee and sugar in equal parts is the prashad of the day, and the langar serves dal, a vegetable, roti and kheer to everyone who comes. At home the Punjab cooks meethe peele chawal, kadhi chawal and chhole with bhature, with lassi, and the fair sells jalebi and pakoras.
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 Vaisakh sangrand: the bhog of the Akhand Path and the Ardas are in the morning at the gurdwara, the nagar kirtan goes out through the day, and the fairs run into the evening.
| 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
Tobacco and alcohol have no place at the gurdwara, the langar or the nagar kirtan, and nobody sits before the Guru Granth Sahib with the head uncovered or shoes on. The karah prashad is not refused, and the langar is eaten sitting in pangat with everyone, whatever one's standing.
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. The Punjab keeps the same ingress as Vaisakhi: the rabi wheat is cut, the bhangra and the giddha are danced at the mela, and the gurdwaras keep the day Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa at Anandpur Sahib in 1699, with a nagar kirtan and the amrit sanchar.
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 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 dates above)
- Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib at Anandpur Sahib and Takht Sri Damdama Sahib at Talwandi Sabo draw the largest sangats, and the Harmandir Sahib at Amritsar is full from before dawn; Amritsar also remembers the Vaisakhi crowd fired on at Jallianwala Bagh in 1919. Guru Amar Das had made Vaisakhi one of the days for the Sikhs to gather at Goindwal long before the Khalsa was founded.
- 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 Punjab 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
ਵਿਸਾਖੀ ਦੀਆਂ ਲੱਖ ਲੱਖ ਵਧਾਈਆਂVaisakhi diyan lakh lakh vadhaiyan
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.
- Mool Mantar (Ik Onkar)
- Japji Sahib
A name without a link is a long reading, read in full from the family’s own copy or at the place of worship; the library prints the shorter prayers.
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.