Makara Sangkranti 2026 Dhaka: Date & Observance Guide

நாளின் மகத்துவம்

Makara Saṅkrānti is the Sun's entry into Makara (Capricorn), one of the few pan-Indian observances fixed to the solar calendar rather than to a tithi. It opens Uttarāyaṇa, the Sun's northward half-year, which tradition calls the daytime of the gods and which Bhīṣma awaited on his bed of arrows. Coming after the winter harvest, it is kept everywhere as a festival of thanksgiving, bathing and charity. The same ingress goes by many names, from Poṅkal and Pedda Paṇḍuga in the south to Uttarāyaṇ in Gujarat, Pouṣ Saṅkrānti in Bengal and Māgh Bihu in Assam.

பஞ்சாங்க விதியும் கணிப்பும்

• How the day is fixed: The festival falls on the local civil day that contains the moment of Makara saṅkramaṇa, the Sun's sidereal ingress into Makara. No tithi or nakṣatra enters the calculation.
• Keep in mind: Because it follows the solar year, its Gregorian date barely moves from year to year, though precession has carried it slowly later over the centuries. When the ingress falls late at night, some regional pañcāṅgas keep the bath and charity on the following morning.
• This year: The 2026 date shown here is worked out from sunrise at the place you chose, so in another city the same day can fall a day earlier or later.

வழிபாடும் அனுஷ்டானங்களும்

• Bath, tarpaṇa and charity: A river bath at the auspicious hour, tarpaṇa for the ancestors and gifts of sesame, rice and warm clothes are widely kept. Pilgrims crowd Gaṅgāsāgar where the Gaṅgā meets the sea, and the first great bath of the Māgh Melā at Prayāg often falls on this day.
• Sesame, jaggery and the new harvest: Sesame and jaggery appear in almost every region's sweets, from eḷḷu-bella in Karnataka and tiḷgūḷ in Maharashtra to tal chikki in Gujarat and makara cāuḷa in Odisha. Bengal makes pithe from new rice and nolen gur, and Gujarat fills its rooftops with kites.
• Worth remembering: Several neighbouring days are kept as observances in their own right, among them Bhogī the day before, Tai Poṅkal, Kanuma and Mukkanuma after it, Makaravilakku at Śabarimala, and Lohṛī and Māgh Bihu in the north and east.

குடும்ப மரபும் ஆசாரமும்

Each region keeps the day in its own idiom. Telugu villages fill with muggulu, gobbemmalu, Haridāsas and gaṅgireddulu, Kannada girls go door to door with eḷḷu-bella, Marathi women exchange vāṇ and haḷadīkuṅkū, and Odia homes offer makara cāuḷa to the deity. Tamil homes fold the day into Tai Poṅkal, and Kerala turns toward the Makaravilakku at Śabarimala. The order of bath, offering and feast is best taken from one's own family elders.