Gudi Padwa 2028: Date, Rituals & Significance

Shukla Pratipada runs 26 Mar, 10:01 → 27 Mar, 11:43.

1. Oil bath and rangoli. Bathe after an oil massage early in the morning and draw a rangoli at the door.
2. Dress the gudi. Tie a bright silk cloth to the top of a clean bamboo staff with neem and mango leaves, a marigold garland and a sugar garland (gathi), and upturn a copper or silver pot over the tip.
3. Raise the gudi. After sunrise, fix the gudi upright at the right side of the main door or at a window, where it can be seen from outside.
4. Worship the gudi. Offer haldi-kunku, akshat, flowers and incense, wave a lamp, and offer naivedya of puran poli or shrikhand.
5. Neem and jaggery. Eat the paste of tender neem leaves with jaggery as the first prasad of the year.
6. Take it down. Before sunset, bow to the gudi, take it down and share the sugar garland.

• A bamboo staff
• A bright silk cloth or sari
• Neem and mango leaves
• Marigold garland
• Sugar garland (gathi)
• Copper or silver pot (kalash)
• Haldi-kunku and akshat
• Flowers, incense and a lamp
• Puran poli or shrikhand for naivedya
• Tender neem leaves and jaggery

The day begins with an abhyanga oil-bath, a rangoli and a toran of mango leaves; the first food is a morsel of neem leaf with jaggery, tamarind and ajwain — bitterness taken with sweetness so the year is met whole. Puran poli or shrikhand-puri is the festive meal, and the year's panchang is read (panchang-shravan).

For Maharashtrians it also recalls Shivaji's victories and the raising of battle standards; the gudi is lowered at sunset. In the Deccan the same tithi is Ugadi, kept with the Ugadi pachadi and the Panchanga Sravanam.

Chaitra Shukla Pratipada is held in the Puranas to be the day Brahma created the world and began time, and the day Rama was crowned at Ayodhya after returning from exile — hence the victory gudi. Marathi tradition adds the memory of the Marathas' repulse of invaders and the raising of the jaya-stambha.

Source: Shalivahana Shaka era and Marathi sant literature — Chaitra Pratipada and the gudi

Chaitra Shukla Pratipada is the epoch of the Shalivahana Shaka era (78 CE), the calendar used for the Government of India's national calendar; the raising of the gudi is described in Marathi sant literature (Jnaneshwar, Namdev) and in Peshwa-era accounts.

• Shalivahana Shaka era and Marathi sant literature — Chaitra Pratipada and the gudi
• Wikipedia — Gudi Padwa

1. After an early oil bath, a rangoli is drawn at the door and the gudi is raised: a bamboo staff dressed in bright silk, with neem and mango leaves, a marigold garland and a sugar garland (gathi), crowned by an upturned copper or silver pot.
2. The gudi is tied at the right side of the main door or at a window, worshipped with haldi-kunku, flowers and incense, and taken down before sunset.
3. Tender neem leaves ground with jaggery are eaten first, a reminder that the year brings both bitter and sweet; the new year's panchang is read and Shobha Yatras fill the streets of Girgaon, Thane and Pune.

• Maharashtra. The gudi raised at the doorway, neem-jaggery on an empty stomach, puran poli, and the reading of the year's panchang; shobha yatras in Girgaon, Dombivli and Pune.
• Goa and Konkan. Samvatsar Padvo — the gudi (dhwaj) raised, konar and jaggery eaten, and the panchang read at the temple.

• Neem and jaggery paste — Eaten first, for health through the year.
• Puran poli — Flatbread filled with chana dal and jaggery.
• Shrikhand-puri — Sweet strained yoghurt with fried bread.
• Sakhar gathi — The sugar garland from the gudi, shared among the family.

Gudi Padwa is kept on the day when Pratipada of Chaitra Shukla paksha prevails at sunrise. That day is Monday, 27 March 2028. Pratipada holds at sunrise only on this day.

at sunrise

Gudi Padwa is Chaitra Shukla Pratipada — the first tithi of the bright fortnight of the lunar month Chaitra, the start of the luni-solar year in the Deccan reckoning. The Gregorian date shifts within late March to mid-April as the lunar and solar years realign.

A lunar date: Pratipada of the bright half of Chaitra drifts about 11 days earlier each solar year, then jumps back ~19 days when a leap (Adhika) month is inserted.