Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
Read more Show less
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
- Saturday, 4 September 2027
- Wednesday, 23 August 2028
- Tuesday, 11 September 2029
Where Vinayagar Chaturthi falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 4 Sep
- 2028: 23 Aug, 11 days earlier
- 2029: 11 Sep, 18 days later
The dates, year by year
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The birthday of Ganesha and the largest Ganesha day of the year. A clay pillaiyar is made or bought, installed at home, worshipped for a day or for three, five, seven or nine days, and then taken to water and immersed. Twenty-one blades of arugampul (bermuda grass) and twenty-one modakam are the classical offering.
- Deity
- Ganesha
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Parvati is said to have shaped a child from the turmeric paste of her bath and set him at her door, and when he barred Shiva's way and lost his head, Shiva gave him an elephant's and made him first among his ganas, to be worshipped before every other god. The moon laughed when Ganesha, heavy with modakam, tumbled from his mouse on this night, and was cursed so that whoever sees it on the Chaturthi is accused of something he did not do; Krishna himself was accused of stealing the Syamantaka jewel after seeing it. The Tamil home makes its Pillaiyar of the same earth the family walks on, shades him with an umbrella, garlands him with erukkam flowers and returns him to water, a reminder that the form comes from the earth and goes back to it. Avvaiyar's Vinayagar Agaval, the Tamil hymn many children learn first, is recited in many houses as the day's chief prayer.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Vinayagar Chaturthi: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a clay Pillaiyar with his umbrella
- a manai and a banana leaf
- raw rice to seat him on
- an erukkam poo garland
- twenty-one blades of arugampul
- mango leaves
- vilampazham (wood apple), guava and other fruit
- coconuts
- sandal paste, kumkum and flowers
- rice flour, jaggery and coconut for the kozhukattai
- kuthuvilakku and camphor
The steps
0 of 9 done
What is cooked
Tamil Nadu makes kozhukattai in two kinds, the sweet poorana kozhukattai filled with coconut and jaggery (the Tamil modakam) and the savoury ulundu kozhukattai, with ellu kozhukattai of sesame in many homes, and kondakadalai sundal, vadai, payasam and appam beside them. Kerala steams kozhukatta and fries unniyappam; Andhra and Telangana make undrallu and kudumulu; Maharashtra makes ukadiche modak of rice flour with a coconut and jaggery filling; Karnataka makes kadubu.
The hour
Clock times for Saturday, 4 September 2027 at Chennai
Madhyahna, midday, is the hour of the birth, so the sthapana and the first puja are at midday; the calendar takes the day on which Shukla Chaturthi runs at madhyahna.
The main rite. Madhyahna, the middle of the day, on the Shukla Chaturthi of the lunar month that begins with the last new moon of Aavani. The Pillaiyar is installed and first worshipped at midday, and the immersion is the same evening, on the third day or later, as the family keeps it.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Madhyahna | 12:08 | midday, the midpoint of sunrise and sunset |
Sunrise 05:58, sunset 18:18, 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 Chaturthi from previous day 14:20 until 12:26 | then Shukla Panchami until next day 11:18 |
| Nakshatra | Chitra until 14:50 | then Swati until next day 14:30 |
| Rahu kaal | 09:03 to 10:35 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 13:41 to 15:13 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 05:58 to 07:30 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:43 to 12:33 (0 h 49 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 09:07 | moonset 20:58 |
For Saturday, 4 September 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
Many fast until the midday puja and eat after it. Modakam, kozhukattai, sundal and appam are made; the moon is deliberately not looked at that night, as seeing it is held to bring a false accusation.
What is avoided
Do not look at the moon on the Chaturthi night; if it is seen by chance, the story of the Syamantaka jewel is heard or read to undo it. Plaster images are avoided, since they do not dissolve and foul the water.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Maharashtra and the Telugu country keep ten days to the immersion on Anantha Chaturdashi; Tamil Nadu more often immerses the same evening or on the third day. Kerala calls it Vinayaka Chaturthi and keeps it quietly at home.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu (the dates above)
- Kept in every Tamil home with a small clay Pillaiyar, immersed the same evening or on the third day, and at Pillaiyarpatti, the Uchi Pillaiyar rock at Tiruchirappalli and the Manakula Vinayagar temple at Puducherry; the large street Vinayagars and their processions to the sea are a later addition that has grown very large.
- Kerala
- Kerala keeps Vinayaka Chaturthi quietly at home and with the ashtadravya Ganapathy homam at the temples, Kottarakkara, famous for its unniyappam, among them.
- Telugu
- Andhra and Telangana keep Vinayaka Chavithi with a clay Vinayaka worshipped with twenty-one kinds of leaves and the Vinayaka vratakalpam read with the Syamantakamani story, and the great public pandals, the largest at Khairatabad in Hyderabad, immerse on Anantha Chaturdashi.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps Gowri Habba the day before, when married women worship Swarna Gowri, and installs Ganesha the next day, come, the story says, to take his mother back to Kailasa.
- North India
- The north keeps Ganesh Chaturthi more quietly, in homes and temples, though public pandals have spread there in recent years.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra keeps Ganeshotsav, the public festival Tilak made a gathering of the people, with the mandals of Mumbai and Pune, the household Ganapati kept from a day and a half to ten days, and the immersion on Anant Chaturdashi.
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
இனிய விநாயகர் சதுர்த்தி நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்Iniya Vinayagar Chathurthi nalvazhthukkal
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
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
- Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu · Swetha Vinayagar, the white Ganesha of sea foam, with Kapardeeswarar
- Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu · Uchi Pillayar (Ganapathi) on the summit, with Thayumanavar below
Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.
Read more Show less
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.
Read more Show less
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.