Makar Sankranti 2027: 15 January

City-wise times

The Sankranti moment is the same in every city; the punya kaal follows the city’s sunrise and sunset. For another city, pick it in the box above.

At a glance

Makar Sankranti

Friday, 15 January 2027 (Drik Panchang, New Delhi)

Sankranti moment

14 January, 9:16 PM (Drik Panchang: 9:14 PM)

Punya Kaal (New Delhi)

15 January, 7:15 AM to 5:46 PM

Maha Punya Kaal (New Delhi)

15 January, 7:15 to 9:00 AM

Lohri

Evening of Thursday, 14 January

Pongal

Bhogi 14, Thai Pongal 15, Mattu Pongal 16, Kaanum Pongal 17 January

Magh (Bhogali) Bihu

15 January; Uruka on the night of 14 January (Drik Panchang)

Kharmas ends

The Kharmas that began with the Dhanu Sankranti (16 December 2026) ends with Makar Sankranti

Also

A main bath of the Magh Mela at Prayag; the Gangasagar Mela

Makar Sankranti: 14 or 15 January?

A Sankranti is the moment the Sun moves from one sign to the next; Makar Sankranti is the moment it enters Makara (sidereal, Lahiri ayanamsha). In 2027 that is 9:14 PM on Thursday 14 January (Drik Panchang). The moment is the same all over India. But the bath and charity are done in the daytime, and when the Sankranti falls after sunset, panchangs give the punya kaal on the next day; so Drik Panchang and our calendar give Makar Sankranti on Friday 15 January. The same happened in 2023: the Sankranti was at 8:57 PM on 14 January and the festival was kept on 15 January. States whose solar calendar follows another rule may differ: Drik’s Odia panji gives “Uttarayana Makar Sankranti” on 14 January, because the Odia month is counted from the day of the Sankranti itself.

Punya Kaal and Maha Punya Kaal

The time around a Sankranti is held to be meritorious (punya) for the bath, charity and japa. For a night Sankranti, Drik Panchang gives the whole of 15 January 2027, sunrise to sunset, as the punya kaal, and its first sixth (the first 5 of the day’s 30 ghatis) as the maha punya kaal. Sunrise and sunset change with the city, so the punya kaal does too: New Delhi 7:15 AM–5:46 PM, Kolkata 6:19 AM–5:13 PM, Mumbai 7:15 AM–6:21 PM. Pick your city in the table below or the box above. Also ask your family tradition or purohit for the exact time of the bath and charity.

Uttarayana: what the texts say

According to the Manusmriti (1.67) a human year is one day and night of the gods: uttarayana, the northern course of the sun, is their day and dakshinayana their night. The Bhagavad Gita (8.24) counts the six months of uttarayana in the “bright” path by which knowers of Brahman go; the verse is below. According to the Mahabharata, Bhishma fell to arrows on the tenth day of the war and waited for the sun to turn north before giving up his body (Bhishma Parva, chapters 116–120; Anushasana Parva, chapters 167–168). Tradition takes Makar Sankranti as the start of uttarayana. In astronomy the Sun’s northward course begins at the winter solstice (about 21–22 December); Makar Sankranti is a sidereal reckoning (against the stars), so the two are now about three weeks apart, and the gap grows by about a day every 72 years.

One festival, many names: the customs of the states

Makar Sankranti is kept all over India, but each region has its own name and customs. The customs below are folk tradition, not scriptural rules; they vary from family to family and village to village.

Magh (Bhogali) Bihu 2027: Uruka on 14 January, Bihu on 15 January

In Assam Makar Sankranti is kept as Magh Bihu or Bhogali Bihu. Drik Panchang gives it on Friday 15 January 2027; the night before, 14 January, is Uruka. In 2023 too the Sankranti fell on the night of 14 January, and the Assam government’s holiday list had Magh Bihu on 15 and 16 January 2023. Assam’s 2027 list is not out yet; confirm holidays from it. According to Wikipedia, on the night of Uruka families and villages share a feast (bhuj), young people build temporary huts of bamboo and straw (bhelaghar) in the fields and spend the night by the fire, and on the morning of Bihu bonfires (meji) are lit in the fields with prayers to the ancestral gods; the ashes are spread on trees and fields. Til pitha, sunga pitha and coconut laru are the dishes of the festival. These are folk customs.

Gangasagar and Prayag: the Sankranti bath

On Makar Sankranti it is the custom to bathe in the Ganga and other sacred rivers. On Sagar Island in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district, where the Hooghly (Ganga) meets the Bay of Bengal, the Gangasagar Mela is held on Makar Sankranti, organised by the state government; the temple of Kapil Muni is here. By tradition the sixty thousand sons of King Sagara were burnt to ashes by Kapil Muni’s wrath, and Bhagiratha brought the Ganga down to earth to free them; here the Ganga met the sea. At Prayagraj the Magh Mela is held every year at the Sangam, and Makar Sankranti is one of its main baths. All the 2026-27 bathing days, with the time for the bath, are on the Ganga Snan page.

Charity and food: by tradition

After the bath in the punya kaal, charity is the custom. In North India sesame, jaggery, khichdi (rice and urad dal), blankets and warm clothes are commonly given, and at home sesame-jaggery laddoos, gajak and khichdi are made. What to give is a matter of family tradition; these are customs, not the fixed rule of any one text. Giving something useful to someone in need is the heart of every custom.

The end of Kharmas and wedding muhurats

From the Dhanu Sankranti (16 December 2026) to Makar Sankranti the Sun is in Dhanu (Sagittarius), the period called Kharmas, when wedding muhurats are not set. Drik Panchang’s 2027 list of wedding muhurats begins on 15 January. See the Kharmas page for its rules and dates, and the wedding muhurats of January 2027 on their own page.

Checked against Drik Panchang

The times on this page are from our panchang calculation (Indian Standard Time, Lahiri ayanamsha). Drik Panchang gives the Makar Sankranti moment as 9:14 PM on 14 January 2027; ours is 9:15:36, about 2 minutes later, as with all our Sankranti moments. Drik’s punya kaal for New Delhi is 7:15 AM–5:46 PM on 15 January, and its punya kaal and maha punya kaal for Vijayawada, Chikmagalur, Gokarna, Durgapur, Moga and Maur match our calculation to the minute (for example Durgapur: 6:25 AM–5:15 PM and 6:25–8:13 AM). Prokerala, with another ayanamsha, gives the Sankranti as 9:06 PM for Ujjain; the day is the same.

How to perform the puja

1. Step 1

   Morning bath

   In the punya kaal, and if possible the maha punya kaal, bathe in a sacred river, or at home in water with a little Ganga water and sesame added (custom).

2. Step 2

   Arghya to the Sun

   Offer water with red flowers and unbroken rice from a copper pot to the rising Sun (custom).

3. Step 3

   Charity

   Give sesame, jaggery, khichdi, a blanket or warm clothes to someone in need, as your tradition and means allow.

4. Step 4

   Til-gud and khichdi

   Make sesame-jaggery laddoos or gajak and khichdi at home, offer them first, then eat with the family.

Verses

Frequently asked questions