Mesha Sankranti 2028: Date, Rituals & Significance

Krishna Chaturthi runs 12 Apr, 08:36 → 13 Apr, 07:29.

Because it opens the solar year, Mesha Sankranti is among the most widely observed of the twelve Sankrantis — a day for the ritual bath, for new clothes and account books, and for the first sight of an auspicious arrangement of grain, fruit and gold at daybreak in the southern reckonings.

The reckoning of the year from the Sun's entry into Aries is set out in the Surya Siddhanta and the later karana texts, and the regional new-year customs — the Baisakhi harvest, the Vishu kani, the Puthandu kanni — grew around it over the medieval centuries as the solar calendars were fixed in each region.

Source: Surya Siddhanta — the reckoning of the solar year from Mesha ingress

The division of the Hindu year into twelve solar months from the Sankrantis is stated in the Surya Siddhanta; the regional solar new-year eras — Kollam, Bengali San, Tamil, Assamese — were fixed between about the 7th and 16th centuries, each anchoring its year-count to this ingress.

• Surya Siddhanta — the reckoning of the solar year from Mesha ingress
• Wikipedia — Mesha Sankranti

1. The Sun's entry into sidereal Aries begins the solar year, and much of India keeps it as New Year: Vaisakhi in Punjab, Puthandu in Tamil Nadu, Vishu in Kerala, Bohag Bihu in Assam, Pana Sankranti in Odisha and Pohela Boishakh in Bengal.
2. A bath at sunrise, in a river where possible, is followed by Surya arghya and daan.
3. Summer gifts are traditional: pots of water, fans, sattu, jaggery and umbrellas.

• Punjab. Baisakhi — the spring-harvest festival and, since 1699, the founding day of the Khalsa; melas, bhangra and gurdwara processions.
• Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu. Poila Boishakh, Bohag Bihu, Vishu and Puthandu — the regional new year, kept with new clothes, the halkhata ledger, the Vishu kani and the Puthandu kanni.
• Odisha, Mithila. Pana Sankranti (Maha Vishuva) and Jur Sital / Sattuan — the pana sherbet, sattu, and water-pouring rites in the heat.

• Sattu and jaggery — Given in daan and eaten as a cooling summer food, especially in Bihar and eastern UP (Satuani).
• The regional new-year dish — Pana in Odisha, mango pachadi in Tamil Nadu, Vishu sadya in Kerala, pitha in Assam.

Mesha Sankranti falls on Thursday, 13 April 2028. Sun's sidereal ingress into Aries (Mesha); regional New Year across much of India.

at sunrise

Mesha Sankranti is the moment the Sun enters sidereal Aries (Lahiri ayanamsha), which now falls near 14 April. It sits close to — but, because of precession, no longer on — the March equinox; the sidereal date drifts about one day later every seventy years.

Fixed to a solar ingress — the Gregorian date barely moves (a day either way as the ingress instant drifts against the civil day).