Guruvar Vrat 2028: Date, Vrat Vidhi & Significance

Break after the worship with one saltless meal of yellow food.

Thursday, ruled by Jupiter, is kept for Vishnu and Brihaspati and, widely, for a banana tree, which is watered and worshipped with turmeric, gram-dal (chana dal), jaggery and yellow flowers. The fast is a single yellow meal — no salt, often chana dal khichdi — and yellow cloth and gram are given in dana. The Brihaspativar katha is read.

Weekday vratas (varavrata) and the weekday-Pradosh combinations are set out in the Nibandha and vrata literature and elaborated in popular Vrat Katha collections; the planetary-remedy reading is from applied jyotish. The Santoshi Mata Friday vrat is a twentieth-century addition to the older set.

• Nibandha and Vrata-katha literature

1. Kept for Vishnu and Brihaspati, for wisdom, marriage and prosperity: the banana tree is worshipped with turmeric, chana dal and jaggery.
2. Yellow clothes are worn and the Brihaspativar katha is read; by custom, hair is not washed or cut on the day.
3. Chana dal, turmeric or yellow cloth is given in daan.

Phala: Wisdom, marriage for a woman of marriageable age, progeny, prosperity and the blessing of a guru; strengthening of Jupiter.

The Brihaspativar katha is of a generous king whose queen resented his charity and, on a sadhu's mischief, made him stop giving on Thursdays; want came to the palace at once, and only when the king resumed the Guruvar worship and dana did fortune return.

Source: Vrata-katha tradition (the Vrat Katha Sangrah and regional collections)

1. Sankalpa. Bathe, wear yellow, and take the sankalpa for the Thursday fast.
2. Banana-tree puja. Worship Vishnu at a banana tree with turmeric, chana dal and jaggery, and water its roots.
3. Katha. Read the Brihaspativar vrat katha.
4. Meal. Take one meal of yellow food without salt.

• Turmeric
• Chana dal and jaggery
• Yellow flowers
• Yellow cloth
• Lamp and incense

• One saltless meal of yellow food
• Do not wash or cut hair on the day
• Give chana dal or turmeric in daan

Who should not keep this fast: Those who are ill, pregnant, nursing, elderly or diabetic should keep phalahar or a fruit-and-milk fast rather than a saltless single meal, or do the puja and dana without fasting.

• Pan-Indian. Kept across North, West and Central India as a household vrat; the weekday-graha link is used everywhere in jyotish upaya.

• Yellow food, saltless — The vrat meal follows the day: yellow ingredients where possible, no salt, and often a single grain (wheat, or chana dal on Thursday). Sour food is avoided on Friday.

Guruvar Vrat falls on Thursday, 6 January 2028. Thursday fast for Vishnu / Sai / Brihaspati.

at sunrise

Guruvar Vrat is not tied to a tithi: it is kept on Thursday itself, ruled in the planetary week by Brihaspati (Jupiter). A vow is usually taken for a fixed run — 16, 21 or 43 weeks — and closed with an udyapan. It recurs every seven days.

The date is set by the Hindu lunisolar calendar and shifts against the Gregorian year.