Makar Sankranti 2027 मकर संक्रांति

Why Makar Sankranti is celebrated

Makar Sankranti is one of the few Hindu festivals fixed by the solar calendar rather than the Moon. It falls on the day the Sun moves into Makara rashi, or Capricorn, in the sidereal zodiac used in Indian astrology. Because of this, the date stays close to 14 January every year, with an occasional shift to 15 January. In 2027 it falls on Thursday, 14 January.

Devotees picture Surya Dev riding his golden chariot drawn by seven horses as he crosses into the house of Makar. The day opens Uttarayan, the six-month period when the Sun appears to travel northward along the horizon. Hindu tradition treats this half of the year as auspicious, a good time to start new work, hold weddings and give in charity. Days grow longer, nights grow shorter, and farmers in many states bring in sugarcane, rice and sesame. The festival is therefore both a thanksgiving for the harvest and a welcome to warmer, brighter days.

Food and giving sit at its centre. Sesame (til) and jaggery (gud) appear in almost every regional menu, since both keep the body warm in peak winter. Devotees believe that a bath in a holy river and a gift of til, khichdi, blankets or grain on this day earns great merit. Maharashtra sums up the spirit of the day in a popular greeting that asks people to accept sweet til-gul and speak sweetly in return.

History and story of Makar Sankranti

Indian astronomers have tracked the Sun's passage through the twelve rashis for many centuries, and each entry into a new sign is called a sankranti. The move into Makara gained special weight because, long ago, it lay close to the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. The slow wobble of the Earth's axis has since pulled the two events apart. Today the solstice comes around 21 or 22 December, while Makar Sankranti has drifted to mid January, and it keeps moving later by about one day in seventy years.

Scripture and legend add layers of meaning. The Mahabharata tells that Bhishma, lying wounded on a bed of arrows, chose to wait for Uttarayan before giving up his life. A popular story says that Surya visits his son Shani, the lord of Makara, on this day, so the festival also speaks of reconciliation within families. Tradition links the day to the Ganga reaching the sea as well, which is why pilgrims gather at Gangasagar in West Bengal.

In Uttarakhand, the Uttarayani fair at Bageshwar traces its roots to the time of the Chand kings of Kumaon. The fair also holds a proud place in the freedom movement. In January 1921, at the Uttarayani gathering on the banks of the Saryu, Badri Datt Pandey and other leaders led the hill people in rejecting coolie begar, the system of forced labour, and the crowd destroyed the registers used to enforce it.

How Makar Sankranti is celebrated

The day usually starts before sunrise with a bath, ideally in the Ganga, the Yamuna or another sacred river. Families who cannot travel bathe at home, sometimes with a few sesame seeds added to the water. After the bath, devotees offer water to the rising Sun, recite the Gayatri Mantra or the Aditya Hridayam, and visit temples.

Charity follows. People give til laddoos, rice, dal, jaggery, warm clothes and money to priests, the poor and elders. In much of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Uttarakhand, families donate raw rice and urad dal and cook khichdi for the main meal, which is why the festival is simply called Khichdi in these areas.

Kites fill the sky in Gujarat, Rajasthan and parts of Uttar Pradesh. Kitchens turn out til-gud laddoos, gajak, rewari and chikki. Married women in Maharashtra hold haldi-kumkum gatherings and exchange small gifts. Many families wear new clothes, and in Maharashtra black clothes are common on this day because the colour soaks up the winter sun.

Symbols, food and customs of Makar Sankranti

The Sun is the heart of the festival. Devotees picture Surya Dev on his chariot pulled by seven horses, turning north as he enters Makar. A copper pot of water, red flowers and a few grains of rice form the simple arghya offered to him at sunrise.

Kites are the best known sign of the day. In Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara, families climb to rooftops at dawn and fly patang until dark, shouting "kai po che" when they cut a rival's string. The night sky then fills with paper lanterns called tukkal.

Til and gud lead the menu. Til laddoo, gajak, rewari, chikki and til-gul are shared with friends and neighbours as a wish for sweet words and warm ties. North India cooks khichdi of new rice and urad dal, served with ghee, papad, curd and pickle, and raw khichdi ingredients are given away in charity. Gujarat prepares undhiyu and jalebi, Tamil Nadu offers sweet pongal cooked in a new pot, and Assam enjoys pitha, laru and curd with chira.

Holy water carries great meaning. A dip at the Sangam in Prayagraj during the Magh Mela, at Gangasagar where the Ganga meets the sea, or at Har Ki Pauri in Haridwar is believed to wash away sins.

Makar Sankranti across India

Few festivals change name and form as much from state to state. Punjab and Haryana light Lohri bonfires on the night before. Tamil Nadu celebrates four days of Pongal, boiling new rice in milk until it spills over, and honours cattle on Mattu Pongal. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana keep Bhogi, Sankranti and Kanuma. Assam marks Magh Bihu with community feasts and the burning of the meji, a hut of straw and bamboo. Gujarat calls it Uttarayan and turns rooftops into kite-flying arenas. Karnataka shares ellu bella, a mix of sesame, jaggery, coconut and groundnut. In Prayagraj the Magh Mela sees one of its main bathing days, and in Gorakhpur devotees offer khichdi at the Gorakhnath temple.

Uttarakhand has customs of its own. In Kumaon the festival is called Ghughutiya. Families fry small shapes of wheat flour dough sweetened with jaggery, called ghughute, and children wear them strung as garlands. In the morning the children call out to crows with a folk rhyme and offer them the sweets, a custom tied to a local legend. The week-long Uttarayani fair at Bageshwar draws crowds to the confluence of the Saryu and the Gomti near the Bagnath temple. In Garhwal and in Dehradun, people bathe at Haridwar, Rishikesh and Devprayag, donate khichdi and visit relatives, while village fairs bring folk songs and dances.

Offices, banks, markets and travel during Makar Sankranti

Makar Sankranti is a restricted (optional) holiday for central government employees, so most central offices stay open. Many states declare their own holiday under the local name, such as Pongal, Uttarayan or Bihu, so check your state list.

For 2027, the central government list keeps Makar Sankranti, Thursday 14 January, in the pool of optional holidays and on the restricted holiday list, where it shares the slot with Magh Bihu. Pongal, Friday 15 January, also sits in the optional pool and on the restricted list, together with the birthday of Guru Gobind Singh. Central offices therefore stay open, and employees may take either day off from their restricted quota. The Supreme Court is closed on 14 and 15 January 2027.

State government and RBI bank holiday lists for 2027 usually come out in December 2026 or January 2027, so check them closer to the date. For a rough idea, here is what happened in 2026: Uttarakhand schools closed on 14 January, Uttar Pradesh closed its state offices on 15 January as a public holiday, and banks in Lucknow and Kanpur shut on 15 January. Makar Sankranti was a restricted holiday for state staff in Uttarakhand, Delhi, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and for central staff.

Expect heavy rush on trains and buses to Prayagraj, Haridwar and Gangasagar, and crowded ghats on the morning of the festival. Markets selling kites, til sweets and winter wear stay busy all week before it.