# Makar Sankranti 2027 -- Date, Significance & How It's Celebrated > Makar Sankranti falls on Friday, 15 January 2027. Exact dates for 2026 and 2027, the real mythology, honest rituals and regional variations, plus the computed panchang for the day -- no fear-selling. - **Canonical URL**: https://merirashi.com/en/festivals/makar-sankranti - **Language**: en --- 1. [Home](https://merirashi.com/en) 2. / 3. [Festivals](https://merirashi.com/en/festivals) 4. / 5. Makar Sankranti Hindu Festivals 2027 - Solar (Sankranti) observance ## Makar Sankranti 2027 Friday, 15 January 2027 ![](https://merirashi.com/_next/image?url=%2Fimages%2Ffestivals%2Fmakar-sankranti.png&w=3840&q=85) When is Makar Sankranti in 2027? Makar Sankranti falls on **Friday, 15 January 2027** -- The Sun's sidereal ingress into Capricorn (Makara) -- a Sankranti, not a tithi-based observance, so its Gregorian date stays almost fixed year to year (13-15 January). Saptami - Shukla Paksha revati nakshatra Sunrise 07:10 AM Panchang computed live from the sidereal (Lahiri) ephemeris at Ujjain, the classical Hindu reference meridian -- not a stored guess. [Check today's Panchang & muhurat](https://merirashi.com/en/panchang)[All 2027 festival dates](https://merirashi.com/en/festivals) Dates ## Makar Sankranti dates: 2026 & 2027 Exact verified dates for each covered year, with the computed tithi for the day. | Year | Date | Tithi | Status | | ---- | -------------------------- | ------------------------- | -------- | | 2026 | Wednesday, 14 January 2026 | Ekadashi - Krishna Paksha | Past | | 2027 | Friday, 15 January 2027 | Saptami - Shukla Paksha | Upcoming | Overview ## What Makar Sankranti marks Makar Sankranti marks the Sun's entry into the sidereal sign of Capricorn and, with it, the start of Uttarayana -- the Sun's six-month northward journey. Unlike most Hindu festivals, which follow the Moon and shift across the Gregorian calendar, Sankranti festivals are tied to the solar year, so this date lands within a day or two of 14 January every year. Across India it doubles as a harvest festival, arriving just as winter crops of sesame, jaggery, and grain come in, and its themes are warmth, gratitude, and the slow return of longer days. Significance ## Mythology & meaning In Vedic cosmology, the year is divided into two halves: Uttarayana, when the Sun appears to move north, and Dakshinayana, when it moves south. Uttarayana has long been considered the more auspicious half -- the "day of the gods" in some readings of the Puranas -- a time favoured for sacred rites, new beginnings, and the shedding of the body in Vaishnava and Shaiva traditions alike. The Mahabharata gives this idea its most famous illustration: Bhishma, mortally wounded on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, held onto life on a bed of arrows for weeks so that he could choose to depart only after Uttarayana began, believing it would carry his soul more favourably. Sankranti itself is also framed as a moment of solar worship -- the Sun (Surya) is thanked for ripening the harvest and for the returning warmth after the year's longest nights. Because the observance is agricultural at its root, its mythology is lighter than many lunar festivals; the emphasis falls less on a single divine story and more on gratitude for the solar cycle itself -- the turning point after which nights shorten and fields yield their crop. Regional retellings add their own colour: in Punjab, the fire lit the night before (as Lohri) is understood as an offering of thanks for the rabi harvest to come; in Tamil Nadu, Pongal's boiling-over pot of rice and milk is itself the ritual, said to invite abundance into the home for the year ahead. Together these traditions treat the day less as commemorating a myth and more as marking a genuine astronomical hinge point -- the Sun's turn -- that the whole subcontinent has organised its ritual calendar around for centuries. Surya, the Sun, is also honoured on this day in his own right as the graha of vitality and life force, and many temples and households perform a simple Surya puja alongside the harvest rituals. Because Sankranti festivals track the actual solar year rather than the lunar calendar, the exact Gregorian date can drift by a day or so over long stretches of centuries due to the slow precession of the equinoxes -- a genuine astronomical detail, not an inconsistency in the tradition. Rituals ## How it's celebrated The specific customs vary enormously by region, but common threads are fire, sesame and jaggery sweets, and river bathing. In Gujarat and parts of Rajasthan, the day is Uttarayan, filled with kite-flying from rooftops from dawn to dusk. In Punjab and Haryana, the night before (Lohir/Lohri) brings bonfires, folk songs, and offerings of til, popcorn, and peanuts thrown into the flames. In Tamil Nadu and much of the south, Pongal is a four-day harvest festival; its central ritual is boiling new rice with milk and jaggery in a clay pot until it overflows, a deliberate symbol of abundance, accompanied by the cry "Pongalo Pongal." In Assam, Magh Bihu (Bhogali Bihu) centres on community feasts and bonfire gatherings the night before. Across North India, Sankranti day itself is marked with til-gud laddus and chikki, exchanged with the words "til-gud ghya, god god bola" in Maharashtra -- "take this sesame-jaggery and speak sweetly" -- a small ritual meant to soften the year's relationships. Holy dips in the Ganga, Yamuna, and other rivers are widely observed, most visibly at the Ganga Sagar Mela in West Bengal, where pilgrims gather where the river meets the sea. None of these customs carry a fear-based obligation; they are harvest-season gratitude rituals, observed at whatever scale suits a household. Charitable giving (daan) is a quiet but consistent thread across the day's customs: sesame, jaggery, blankets, and warm food are traditionally given to the poor, framed as gratitude shared outward rather than kept only within the family. In Andhra Pradesh and parts of Karnataka, the day before Sankranti is observed as Bhogi, when old and unwanted household items are burnt in a dawn bonfire, symbolising the clearing away of the old before the new harvest season begins. Across India ## Regional variations Same festival, many names The same solar event carries different names and flavours nationwide: Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Lohri (the night before) in Punjab and Haryana, Magh Bihu in Assam, Uttarayan in Gujarat, Sankranthi in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, and Khichdi in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where a dish of rice and lentils is the day's signature food. What unites them is the underlying astronomy -- the Sun's move into Capricorn -- expressed through each region's own harvest and folk traditions rather than a single shared story. ## Frequently asked questions When is Makar Sankranti in 2027? Makar Sankranti falls on 15 January 2027, when the Sun makes its sidereal ingress into Capricorn (Makara). Because this is a solar event rather than a lunar tithi, the date stays close to 14 January every year, occasionally shifting to the 13th or 15th. When is Makar Sankranti in 2026? Makar Sankranti falls on 14 January 2026, when the Sun makes its sidereal ingress into Capricorn (Makara). Because this is a solar event rather than a lunar tithi, the date stays close to 14 January every year, occasionally shifting to the 13th or 15th. Why does Makar Sankranti fall on a nearly fixed date unlike other Hindu festivals? Most Hindu festivals are set by the lunar calendar (a tithi within a masa), so they drift across the Gregorian year. Sankranti festivals instead mark the Sun's sidereal ingress into a zodiac sign -- a solar, not lunar, event -- so their Gregorian date stays nearly constant, shifting only slightly due to the slow precession of the equinoxes. What is Uttarayana and why does it matter? Uttarayana is the roughly six-month period when the Sun's apparent path moves northward, beginning at Makar Sankranti. Classical tradition treats it as the more auspicious half of the year for sacred rites and new beginnings -- the Mahabharata's Bhishma is said to have waited for Uttarayana before he let go of life. Why do people fly kites on Makar Sankranti? Kite-flying (especially in Gujarat, as Uttarayan) is a regional custom tied to the returning warmth and clearer skies after the winter solstice -- practically, the season's crisp daytime air suits kite flight, and the custom has grown into one of the festival's most visible public celebrations. What are til-gud laddus and why are they eaten on this day? Til-gud laddus are sweets made from sesame seeds (til) and jaggery (gud), both winter-harvest staples that are also traditionally warming foods for the season. Sharing them with the phrase "take this and speak sweetly" turns a seasonal food into a small ritual for renewing goodwill. Is Makar Sankranti connected to any charitable customs? Yes -- giving sesame, jaggery, warm clothing, and food to the poor is a widely observed part of the day, framed as sharing the harvest's abundance rather than as a fear-based obligation. It sits alongside, not instead of, the day's kite-flying, bonfires, and family meals. Explore ## Related festivals [<- Sakat Chauth (Tilkut Chauth) - 25 Jan 2027](https://merirashi.com/en/festivals/sakat-chauth) [Pongal - 15 Jan 2027 ->](https://merirashi.com/en/festivals/pongal) [Baisakhi - 14 Apr 2027](https://merirashi.com/en/festivals/baisakhi) ## Plan around the real muhurat See today's tithi, nakshatra, and Rahu Kaal for your own city, or compute your full birth chart -- free, no fear-selling. 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