Festival
Kanya Sankranti 2028: Date, Rituals & Significance
Saturday
Saturday, 16 September 2028
Kanya Sankranti 2028 is on Saturday, 16 September 2028. Kanya Sankranti is the Sun's entry into sidereal Virgo. Across eastern India it is the fixed day of Vishwakarma Puja, when workshops, factories and craftsmen worship the divine architect at their tools and machines; it opens the Tamil month Purattasi, sacred to Venkateshwara.
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Kanya Sankranti 2028 puja muhurat & timings
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Krishna Dwadashi runs 15 Sept, 13:43 → 16 Sept, 10:52.
What is Kanya Sankranti?
Unlike most deity festivals, Vishwakarma Puja is dated by a solar Sankranti, not a tithi, so it falls on 17 September almost every year. Tools are cleaned and laid down for the day, an image of Vishwakarma with his bow and measuring rod is installed, and the working year's craft is dedicated to him. The Tamil month Purattasi that begins here is kept with Saturday fasts for Venkateshwara.
The story of Kanya Sankranti
Vishwakarma as the artificer of the gods appears already in the Rigveda; the modern factory-and-workshop puja fixed to Kanya Sankranti is an industrial-era practice, widespread in Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Assam and Bihar from the twentieth century.
History
The two Vishwakarma hymns of Rigveda 10 praise him as the all-maker who shapes heaven and earth; the dating of his puja to Kanya Sankranti and its spread through mills, railway sheds and garages belongs to industrial Bengal and eastern India in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
- Rigveda 10.81–82 — the Vishwakarma hymns
- Wikipedia — Vishwakarma Puja
How Kanya Sankranti is observed
- The Sun enters Virgo in mid-September.
- In Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand it is Vishwakarma Puja: tools, machines and vehicles are cleaned and worshipped, workshops close, and kites are flown.
- Elsewhere the day is kept with a bath and daan; it falls near Pitru Paksha, and ancestors are also remembered.
Regional variations
- Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Assam, Bihar. Vishwakarma Puja — worship of tools, machines and vehicles; kite-flying in Bengal; the image immersed a day or more later.
- Tamil Nadu. The first of Purattasi — Saturday fasts and pradakshina for Venkateshwara, and the Navaratri run within the month.
Festive foods
- Khichuri bhog — Offered at the Vishwakarma pandals of Bengal and shared among workers.
Why this date
Kanya Sankranti falls on Saturday, 16 September 2028. Sun's sidereal ingress into Virgo (Kanya); Vishwakarma Puja in many regions.
at sunrise
The astronomical basis
Kanya Sankranti is the moment the Sun enters sidereal Virgo (Lahiri), near 17 September, close to the September equinox. Because it is fixed to the sidereal ingress, Vishwakarma Puja falls on the same Gregorian date year after year — unusual for a Hindu festival.
Fixed to a solar ingress — the Gregorian date barely moves (a day either way as the ingress instant drifts against the civil day).
Kanya Sankranti dates 2022–2037
| Year | Date | Day | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Saturday, 17 September 2022 | Sat | — |
| 2023 | Sunday, 17 September 2023 | Sun | — |
| 2024 | Monday, 16 September 2024 | Mon | — |
| 2025 | Wednesday, 17 September 2025 | Wed | — |
| 2026 | Thursday, 17 September 2026 | Thu | — |
| 2027 | Friday, 17 September 2027 | Fri | — |
| 2028 | Saturday, 16 September 2028 | Sat | — |
| 2029 | Monday, 17 September 2029 | Mon | — |
| 2030 | Tuesday, 17 September 2030 | Tue | — |
| 2031 | Wednesday, 17 September 2031 | Wed | — |
| 2032 | Thursday, 16 September 2032 | Thu | — |
| 2033 | Saturday, 17 September 2033 | Sat | — |
| 2034 | Sunday, 17 September 2034 | Sun | — |
| 2035 | Monday, 17 September 2035 | Mon | — |
| 2036 | Tuesday, 16 September 2036 | Tue | — |
| 2037 | Thursday, 17 September 2037 | Thu | — |
Dates for New Delhi; they can differ by a day elsewhere.
Frequently asked questions
When is Kanya Sankranti 2028?
Kanya Sankranti 2028 is on Saturday, 16 September 2028. Kanya Sankranti falls on Saturday, 16 September 2028. Sun's sidereal ingress into Virgo (Kanya); Vishwakarma Puja in many regions.
Why does Vishwakarma Puja fall on the same date every year?
Because it is dated by a Sankranti — the Sun's entry into sidereal Virgo — rather than by a lunar tithi. Sidereal solar ingresses barely move against the Gregorian calendar, so the puja lands on 16 or 17 September almost every year.
What is a Sankranti?
The moment the Sun crosses from one sidereal rashi into the next — there are twelve in a year. Each is a parva for snana (bathing), dana (giving) and pitru-tarpana, and the punya kala is the few hours around the exact ingress.
Related
More Vishwakarma observances
Same theme
Associated graha
Written and checked by AstroTathya Editorial Team · Last checked 2026-09-08.
Date & panchang computed by the AstroTathya calculation engine, Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) ayanamsa; muhurat and timings are worked out for each city. How we calculate this → · Editorial policy
Sources & further reading
- Rigveda 10.81–82 — the Vishwakarma hymns
- Wikipedia — Vishwakarma Puja