Pana Sankranti 2028: Date, Rituals & Significance

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

A clay pot with a small hole is hung over a tulsi plant or a Shiva linga so that water drips through the day — the 'basundhara' offering to the earth entering the hot season. Households set out pana and water for passers-by, and the day opens the Meru Jatra, Patua Jatra and Jhamu Jatra of the Shakti and Shiva shrines. Hanuman Jayanti is kept on this day in Odisha.

Pana Sankranti is the Odia form of Mesha Sankranti, fixed by the Odia solar calendar (the Bhaskabda era) to the Sun's ingress into Aries. The Meru Jatra and the hook-swinging Jhamu Jatra of the folk Shakti tradition are recorded in colonial-era district gazetteers of Odisha.

Source: Odisha district gazetteers — the Meru Jatra and Jhamu Jatra

The Odia solar year is counted in the Bhaskabda (Amli) era from the Sun's entry into Aries; the Meru Jatra of the Patua khonds and the Jhamu Jatra fire-walk are documented in the district gazetteers of Puri and Ganjam from the late nineteenth century.

• Odisha district gazetteers — the Meru Jatra and Jhamu Jatra
• Wikipedia — Pana Sankranti

1. Odisha's New Year, Maha Vishuva Sankranti, falls on the Sun's entry into Aries.
2. A basundhara theki, a small pot with a hole, is hung over the tulsi plant so that water drips on it through the hot months.
3. Pana, a cooling drink, is offered to the gods and shared; Danda Nata ends and Jhamu Yatra fire-walking is held at some shrines.

• Odisha. The Odia new year — pana and water given in charity, the basundhara pot over tulsi, Meru Jatra at the Shakti shrines, and Hanuman Jayanti.

• Pana — Bel pulp, jaggery, curd, banana and chhena blended into a cooling drink.
• Chhatua — Roasted-flour sattu eaten with the pana.

Pana Sankranti (Maha Bishuba) falls on Thursday, 13 April 2028. Odia New Year; same solar event as Mesha Sankranti.

at sunrise

Pana Sankranti falls at the same instant as Mesha Sankranti — the Sun entering sidereal Aries (Lahiri), near 14 April — and marks the Odia solar new year. It once coincided with the spring equinox, hence 'Maha Vishuva'; precession has since moved the equinox about three weeks earlier.

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