Festival Saraswati, Kamadeva
Vasant Panchami · Saraswati Puja
The fifth day of the bright fortnight of Magha, the first day of spring and the day of Saraswati.
Vasant Panchami · Saraswati Puja 2027 falls on Thursday, 11 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
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
- Thursday, 11 February 2027
- Tuesday, 1 February 2028
- Friday, 19 January 2029
Where Vasant Panchami · Saraswati Puja falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 11 Feb
- 2028: 1 Feb, 10 days earlier
- 2029: 19 Jan, 13 days earlier
The dates, year by year
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The fifth day of the bright fortnight of Magha, the first day of spring and the day of Saraswati. Yellow is worn and yellow food eaten for the mustard in flower; children are made to write their first letters at the aksharabhyasam, and musicians and students put their instruments and books before the goddess. Bengal keeps it as the main Saraswati Puja of the year.
- Deity
- Saraswati, Kamadeva
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
One telling has Brahma making the world and finding it silent, until Saraswati appeared with the veena and gave it sound and speech; the day is kept as her appearance, and so as the day to begin learning. Vasant is Kamadeva's companion, and some homes worship Kama and Rati beside Saraswati, since the season of spring and of love opens today and runs forty days to Holi. Because it is held to be a day that needs no muhurtham at all, an abujh muhurta, the north fixes a great many weddings, housewarmings and first lessons on it. At the dargah of Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi the Sufis keep Basant in yellow too, remembering Amir Khusrau, who put on yellow and sang to lift his teacher's grief.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Vasant Panchami · Saraswati Puja: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a yellow cloth
- a picture or image of Saraswati
- the children's books, pens and slates
- musical instruments and account books
- marigold, mustard flowers and white flowers
- sandal, turmeric and akshat
- ber, the first jujube of the season
- ears of new wheat or barley
- saffron, sugar and ghee for the halwa or sweet rice
- a plate of rice or a slate for the first letters
- a lamp
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
The north cooks yellow: kesar halwa, kesariya bhat or meethe chawal with saffron and dry fruit, boondi laddoo and khichdi with ghee. The Punjab eats meethe peele chawal with makki di roti and sarson da saag; Bengal cooks the bhog khichuri and offers kul, the jujube, which the students will not eat until Saraswati has had it; Nepal offers yellow flowers and sweets at the Saraswati shrines.
The hour
Clock times for Thursday, 11 February 2027 at Chennai
The Panchami running at purvahna, the forenoon, which is the rule the panchangs use for this day; the first letters are written in that window.
The main rite. The Panchami running at purvahna, the forenoon: the puja, the first letters and the worship of the books and instruments are done in the morning, while the Panchami holds.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Purvahna | 10:03 | the forenoon, three tenths of the daylight after sunrise |
Sunrise 06:33, sunset 18:13, 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 Panchami from 03:05 until next day 03:19 | then Shukla Shashti until 2 days later, 03:00 |
| Nakshatra | Revati until next day 05:42 | then Ashwini until 2 days later, 05:56 |
| Rahu kaal | 13:51 to 15:18 (1 h 28 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 06:33 to 08:01 (1 h 28 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 09:28 to 10:56 (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 | 09:19 | moonset 22:01 |
For Thursday, 11 February 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast is required; many eat only after the morning puja. Kesar halwa, boondi and yellow rice are offered.
What is avoided
Do not eat before the puja, and do not wear black on the day. In Bengal and Assam the books given to Saraswati are not opened, and no one writes, until they are taken back the next morning; elsewhere a little reading after the puja is itself the offering.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and the north keep Saraswati Puja here; Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka keep theirs on Navami in Navratri instead, so the two Saraswati days are four months apart.
In other regions
- Telugu
- In Telangana the Gnana Saraswati temple at Basar on the Godavari is crowded with parents bringing children for the aksharabhyasam on Sri Panchami, and Andhra families keep it at home and at the Saraswati shrines.
- North India
- The north keeps Saraswati Puja in the schools and homes of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha, dresses in yellow for the mustard in flower and fixes weddings without asking the almanac; in Vrindavan the Holi season opens with gulal offered at the Banke Bihari temple, and the dargah of Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi keeps its own Basant in yellow.
- Bengal
- Bengal keeps its main Saraswati Puja on this day, with a white pratima in every school and club, the anjali in yellow saris and the hatekhori of the little ones.
- Punjab
- The Punjab keeps Basant in yellow turbans and dupattas, with kites over Amritsar and Patiala.
- Assam
- Assam keeps Saraswati Puja on the same morning, run by the students in every school and college.
- Nepal
- Nepal keeps Shree Panchami, with the children taken to the Saraswati shrines to begin their letters.
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.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
वसंत पंचमी की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएँVasant Panchami ki hardik shubhkamnayein
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Siddipet, Telangana
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Vasant Panchami and Navaratri are its days.
- Nirmal, Telangana
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. children are brought for Akshara Abhyasam on Vasant Panchami and through the year.
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
Vasant Panchami · Saraswati Puja's own date is set by the rule in "The hour" above, and no muhurtham moves it. For a education around it, whose day the family does choose, the finder below applies these rules.
Vidyarambham or aksharabhyasam, the first letters. Vijayadashami and Vasant Panchami are the classic days and need no further checking. Otherwise Wednesday and Thursday, the days of Budhan and Guru, are the best, Rikta tithis are left out, and the hour is usually the morning.
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.