Festival · Pausha Krishna Ekadashi
Makar Sankranti 2026
The day the Sun moves into Makara: a festival set by the Sun, not the Moon. Tilgul ghya, god god bola!
Date, tithi and timing
Times are for Bengaluru. The app gives times for your city.
Date by city
The date is the same in every city listed.
Next year, 2027
Quick facts
- Also known asSankrant, Uttarayan (Gujarat), Pongal (Tamil Nadu), Magh Bihu (Assam)
- WhereAll of India, under a different name in each region
- Puja forSurya, the Sun
- In one lineThe Sun enters Makara. The date follows the Sun, so it is 14 or 15 January every year.
Makar Sankranti, in a little more detail
- 01
About the festival
Most of our festivals follow the tithi, the Moon. Makar Sankranti follows the Sun: it is the day the Sun moves from Dhanu into Makara. So it almost always lands on 14 or 15 January.
As you hand over tilgul you say, tilgul ghya, god god bola: take this sweet, and speak sweetly. Let the year's sulks go, and keep things sweet between you.
Today people wear black. It's a colour festivals usually avoid, but black holds the warmth in the cold of January, so on Sankranti it belongs.
- 02
Bhishma waits for the Sun
In the Mahabharata, Bhishma had a boon: he could choose the time of his own death.
Struck down at Kurukshetra, he lay on a bed of arrows and still did not let go. He waited, some fifty-eight nights, for the Sun to turn north, and gave up his body in Uttarayana.
That is why Uttarayana is held to be auspicious, and tradition takes Makar Sankranti as its start. As astronomy reckons it, the Sun turns north on 21 December; Sankranti goes by the Sun's entry into Makara.
- 03
In Maharashtra and beyond
The day before is Bhogi: bajra bhakri pressed with sesame, white butter and a mixed vegetable bhaji. On Sankranti itself, gulachi poli, a jaggery flatbread, and sesame ladoos or vadis.
Women worship the sugad, small clay pots, and hold haldi-kunku, giving each other vaan, little gifts. The haldi-kunku season runs until Ratha Saptami. Bornhan for small children and a bride's first Sankranti fall in these days too.
The next day is Kinkrant, held to be the day the goddess killed the demon Kinkarasura, and kept free of new beginnings.
In Gujarat, Uttarayan means a sky full of kites. Tamil Nadu keeps Pongal, Punjab lights Lohri the night before, Assam has Magh Bihu, and Uttar Pradesh and Bihar call it Khichdi. One festival, many names.
How to do the puja
In short: The sugad puja, tilgul and gulachi poli as naivedya, and haldi-kunku in the evening: that is Sankranti.
- 1Bathe early in the morning.In many homes a few sesame seeds go into the bath water.
- 2Wear black: women a black sari, small children black clothes.Black keeps you warm in the cold, which is why Sankranti is a day for black.
- 3Fill the sugad, the small clay pots, with chana, sugarcane bits, ber, wheat ears and sesame.Keep as many pots as your home always has.
- 4Worship the sugad with haldi-kunku and flowers, and offer them to God.After the puja, what's in the pots is shared as prasad.
- 5Offer tilgul and gulachi poli as naivedya.Sesame ladoos, vadis or sesame halwa: whatever your home makes.
- 6Hand tilgul to family, friends and neighbours: "tilgul ghya, god god bola".As you hand it over, let the old sulks go.
- 7Give away a sugad filled with grain, or food.Giving is held especially fruitful today.
- 8In the evening, invite married women for haldi-kunku, with tilgul and vaan.This haldi-kunku carries on until Ratha Saptami.
What you needTick as you go
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Frequently asked questions
Why wear black on Sankranti?
Sankranti falls in the cold, and black clothes are warm. It's the one festival where black, usually avoided, is worn on purpose.
What can I give as vaan?
Something small and useful: a little vessel, a comb, a handkerchief, a notebook, or homemade tilgul. It needn't cost much; something lasting beats plastic.
What if it's a baby's or a new bride's first Sankranti?
In many homes the baby and the new bride wear black and jewellery made of sugar-coated halwa beads. Small children get a bornhan: puffed rice, ber, chana, sugarcane bits and halwa poured over the head.
How do I fly kites safely?
Use plain cotton thread. Not nylon, "Chinese" or glass-coated manja: it cuts birds' wings and the throats of people on two-wheelers, and the National Green Tribunal has banned it. Don't fly from a terrace without a parapet, and watch the children.
What do I do with the sugad after the puja?
Share what is inside as prasad. One filled with grain is often given away. The clay pots can go to the garden or the foot of a tree.
Set a reminder in the app
The app sends a notice the day before and on the day, even offline.