Festival · The Sun enters Makara
Makar Sankranti 2027: date, tithi and muhurat
Makar Sankranti 2027 falls on Friday, 15 January, when the Sun enters Makara. The times here are for Chandigarh; choose your city to see yours.
What Makar Sankranti is
Makar Sankranti marks the day the Sun enters Makara, the sign of Capricorn in the sidereal zodiac. In the traditional reckoning it begins Uttarayana, the Sun’s northward half-year, and it is celebrated as a harvest festival across India: Lohri and Maghi in Punjab, Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Magh Bihu in Assam and the kite festival of Uttarayan in Gujarat. It is one of the few Hindu festivals fixed by the Sun rather than the Moon.
How the date is fixed
The date is solar. The Sun is at 270° of the sidereal zodiac when it enters Makara. If that moment falls before local sunset the festival is kept that day, otherwise the next day, which is why it falls on 14 or 15 January.
Dates for 2026 to 2028
Makar Sankranti is on Wednesday, 14 January in 2026, Friday, 15 January in 2027 and Saturday, 15 January in 2028. These dates are calculated from the sky for Chandigarh, not copied from a printed calendar. It is a solar festival: it follows the Sun’s entry into Makara, so no tithi is involved.
| Year | Date | Tithi and month |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Wednesday, 14 January | Solar: the Sun enters Makara |
| 2027 | Friday, 15 January | Solar: the Sun enters Makara |
| 2028 | Saturday, 15 January | Solar: the Sun enters Makara |
Muhurat for Makar Sankranti
For Chandigarh in 2027, the main time is the Punya Kaal (Sankranti to sunset): 7:21 am – 5:43 pm on Friday, 15 January. Sunrise, sunset and the parts of the day move with the city, so the window, and sometimes the day itself, can change elsewhere. Choose your city below and the tables follow.
| Muhurat | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Punya Kaal (Sankranti to sunset) | 3:07 pm – 5:42 pm | 7:21 am – 5:43 pm | 7:21 am – 5:43 pm |
People bathe at dawn, especially in rivers, give grain, sesame and jaggery, eat til-gud sweets and khichdi, and fly kites. The Punya Kaal, the window the texts prefer for bathing and giving, runs from the moment of Sankranti to sunset.
The Sun’s sidereal position drifts against the calendar by about a day every seventy years, so the date has moved from around 12 January a few centuries ago to 14–15 January now.
A share card for the Makar Sankranti muhurat is coming. Today the app has one for Diwali only.
Questions people ask
Why does Makar Sankranti fall on 14 or 15 January?
It follows the Sun, not the Moon. The Sun enters sidereal Makara around 14 January, and when that moment comes after local sunset the festival moves to the next day. The sidereal year is about 20 minutes longer than the seasonal year, so the date creeps later by roughly a day every seventy years.
What is Uttarayana?
Uttarayana is the Sun’s northward journey, from the winter solstice to the summer solstice. Sankranti is traditionally counted as its start, although the astronomical solstice falls about three weeks earlier, a gap that comes from the ayanamsa.
What is Punya Kaal?
Punya Kaal is the window the texts prefer for the bath and for giving. Here it runs from the moment the Sun enters Makara until sunset on the festival day, so it can be short when the ingress comes late in the afternoon.
When is Makar Sankranti in 2026, 2027 and 2028?
Makar Sankranti is on Wednesday, 14 January 2026; Friday, 15 January 2027; Saturday, 15 January 2028, calculated for Chandigarh. It is a solar festival and does not move with the Moon.
How does JYOTISH.info calculate Makar Sankranti?
From the sky, with the astronomy-engine library on the Lahiri sidereal zodiac: the lunar month from the Sun’s sign at the new moon, the tithi from the Moon–Sun angle, and the day part that the festival’s own rule asks for, at the city’s sunrise and sunset. Nothing is copied from a table. The rule is stated above and the full method is on the method page.
Every position on this page is calculated sidereal with the Lahiri ayanamsa from the astronomy-engine library (MIT licence). The classical texts describe tendencies; this page is for guidance and reflection, not a verdict, and no outcome is promised. How we calculate. This is the English page and the legal reference. The same page is available in Hindi. Checked October 2026.