Ravivar Vrat 2028: Date, Vrat Vidhi & Significance

Break with one saltless meal of wheat and jaggery, eaten before sunset.

Sunday is kept for Surya. At sunrise, arghya of water mixed with roli and red flowers is offered to the Sun facing east, the Aditya Hridaya or Surya Ashtakam recited, and a single meal is taken before sunset — without salt, and traditionally without oil; some avoid grain entirely and eat only fruit and one meal of wheat. Copper, wheat, jaggery and a red cloth are given in dana.

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 Surya, often for health, eyesight and during the Sun's dasha: the day begins with a bath and arghya to the rising Sun from a copper lota holding red flowers and roli.
2. The Aditya Hridaya Stotra or the Surya katha is read, and red clothes are worn.
3. Wheat, jaggery or copper is given in daan.

Phala: Health, vitality and freedom from skin and eye disease; standing, authority and recognition; strengthening of a weak Sun.

The Ravivar katha is of an old woman whose house and cattle prospered because she plastered her kitchen with fresh cowdung and worshipped the Sun each Sunday, eating only after; a jealous neighbour's cow ate the plaster and the blessing faltered until the woman took a calf of her own and kept the vrat unbroken — after which Surya restored her fortune.

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

1. Sankalpa. Bathe before sunrise, wear red, and take the sankalpa for the Sunday fast.
2. Surya arghya. Offer arghya to the rising Sun from a copper lota with red flowers, roli and akshat.
3. Path. Recite the Aditya Hridaya Stotra or read the Surya katha.
4. Meal. Take one saltless meal of wheat and jaggery before sunset.

• Copper lota
• Red flowers, roli and akshat
• Wheat and jaggery
• Red cloth
• Lamp

• One saltless meal before sunset
• Offer arghya at sunrise
• Give wheat or jaggery 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.

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

Ravivar Vrat falls on Sunday, 2 January 2028. Sunday fast for Surya.

at sunrise

Ravivar Vrat is not tied to a tithi: it is kept on Sunday itself, ruled in the planetary week by Surya (the Sun). 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.