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
Kerala calendar, computed for Chennai
- Saturday, 4 September 2027
- Wednesday, 23 August 2028
- Tuesday, 11 September 2029
Where Vinayaka Chavithi · Ganesh 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
Kerala calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The birthday of Ganesha and the largest public festival of the Telugu and Kannada country. A clay Ganesha is installed at home and in street pandals, worshipped with twenty-one patri, the twenty-one named leaves, and the Vinayaka Vratha Katha is read; after a day, or five, or nine, or eleven, the idol is taken in procession to water and immersed at the nimajjanam.
- Deity
- Ganesha, Gauri
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
The Vinayaka Vratha Katha that every Telugu home reads after the puja tells the whole story in one sitting: how Parvati shaped a child from the turmeric paste of her bath, how Shiva struck off the head and gave him an elephant's, how he won the leadership of the ganas by circling his parents, and how the Moon laughed at him as he stumbled home after the feast and was cursed for it. The same katha tells of Krishna, who saw the Moon on this night and was blamed for the theft of the Syamantaka jewel, and so the listeners put the akshintalu on their heads at the end as a shield against false blame. Twenty-one is the number of the day: twenty-one names, twenty-one kinds of patri, twenty-one of the sweet, because the puja is an ekavimshati. The leaves are the healing herbs of the monsoon, and the clay image made from the earth goes back into the water that filled the tanks, which is why families still prefer clay to plaster.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Vinayaka Chavithi · Ganesh Chaturthi: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a clay Ganesha and a small umbrella
- a palavelli frame with corn cobs, guavas, custard apples and wood apples
- the twenty-one patri
- garika (durva grass)
- a garland of jilledu flowers
- cotton-thread vastram and yajnopavitam
- turmeric, kumkum, sandal paste and akshintalu
- a banana leaf and rice for the seat
- the Vinayaka Vratha Katha book
- rice rava, rice flour, chana dal and jaggery for the undrallu and kudumulu
- camphor and a lamp
The steps
0 of 9 done
What is cooked
Telugu homes steam undrallu, small balls of rice rava with chana dal, and kudumulu, dumplings of rice flour with jaggery, and make panakam, vadapappu, pulihora, garelu and payasam. Karnataka makes modaka and kadubu, both the steamed kind filled with coconut and jaggery and the fried karjikai, with chakkuli, panchakajjaya and kosambari; the holige and chitranna are made for Gauri the day before.
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. Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturthi running at madhyahna, midday. The image is installed and the first puja done in the midday hour, and the vratha katha is read straight after 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. Undrallu, kudumulu, modak and panakam are offered. The moon is not looked at that night; anyone who does reads the Syamantaka story to be free of the blame.
What is avoided
The Moon is not looked at on the Chavithi night; whoever sees it by chance hears the Syamantaka story to be free of the blame. Tulasi, kept away from Ganesha all year, goes in among the patri only today, and families prefer unpainted clay to plaster so that the image dissolves at the nimajjanam.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Maharashtra and the Telugu country keep it publicly for ten days; Karnataka keeps Gauri Habba for Parvati the day before and Ganesha Chaturthi after; Tamil Nadu and Kerala keep it more quietly at home.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu keeps Vinayagar Chaturthi at home with kozhukattai and a small clay image.
- Kerala (the dates above)
- Kerala keeps Vinayaka Chathurthi with the ashtadravya Ganapathi homam at the temples at dawn.
- Telugu
- Andhra and Telangana keep Vinayaka Chavithi with the palavelli over the home image and a pandal in nearly every street; Hyderabad's Khairatabad Ganesha, the tallest in the state, draws crowds through all the days of the festival.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps Gauri Habba the day before, when married women worship Swarna Gauri and give one another bagina, a winnowing basket of turmeric, kumkum, bangles, rice and dal; Ganesha comes on the Chaturthi as the son sent to fetch his mother home, and the family image usually goes to the water on the first, third or fifth day.
- North India
- The north keeps Ganesh Chaturthi, more and more with public pandals after the Maharashtra pattern.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra keeps Ganeshotsav for ten days with modak, the great mandals of Mumbai and Pune, and the immersion on Anant Chaturdashi.
The dates above are the Kerala 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
వినాయక చవితి శుభాకాంక్షలుVinayaka Chavithi shubhakankshalu
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Mumbai, Maharashtra
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Angarki Chaturthi and Ganesh Chaturthi are its days
- Trinetra Ganesh Temple, Ranthambore 1,493 kmSawai Madhopur, Rajasthan
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Ganesh Chaturthi brings a great fair.
Temples of Ganesha and Gauri 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 · Adi Kamakshi and Kamakshi, standing on the pancha agni penance
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Devi Karumariamman in her three forms
- Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu · Kamakshi Devi seated in padmasana with the Sri Chakra
- Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu · Adhiparasakthi as the swayambhu in the anthill
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.