Vishu 2028: Date, Rituals & Significance

Krishna Panchami runs 13 Apr, 07:29 → 14 Apr, 07:13.

Elders lead the family, eyes closed, to see the kani first, then give vishukkaineetam — coins or notes — to children and dependents. The day brings the sadya feast, the Vishu padakkam firecrackers, and konna (Cassia fistula) blooming gold across Kerala. At Guruvayur and Sabarimala tens of thousands file past to take the temple kani.

The Vishukkani is arranged before Krishna because the year is offered to him first; the konna flower is his colour, and the whole tableau — grain, gold, fruit, light, the mirror reflecting the viewer into it — is a wish for a year of plenty and clear sight.

Vishu means 'equal' — the day was once the spring equinox, when day and night are of equal length; precession has since separated the sidereal Medam-1 from the true equinox by about three weeks, but the name holds. One legend ties it to Krishna's defeat of Narakasura, another to the Sun first rising due east over Kerala on this day after Ravana's death freed it to do so.

Source: Kerala folklore collections and Guruvayur temple practice — the Vishukkani

Vishu is an old solar-calendar festival of Kerala, distinct from the civil Malayalam new year at Chingam (August); the Kollam era counts the years. The Vishukkani and vishukkaineetam customs are documented in Kerala folklore collections and temple practice at Guruvayur and Sabarimala.

• Kerala folklore collections and Guruvayur temple practice — the Vishukkani
• Wikipedia — Vishu

1. The night before, the eldest woman of the house arranges the Vishukkani: in a bell-metal uruli, raw rice, golden cucumber, konna (golden shower) flowers, jackfruit, mango, a coconut, gold, coins, a folded kasavu mundu and a mirror, before an image of Krishna and a lit nilavilakku.
2. At dawn each member is led to the kani with eyes closed, so that the first sight of the year is of plenty.
3. Elders give Vishukkaineetam (coins or notes) to the young and to helpers; children set off firecrackers, and the family eats the Vishu sadya at midday.

• Kerala. The Vishukkani on waking, vishukkaineetam given to children, the sadya, firecrackers, and the temple kani at Guruvayur and Sabarimala.
• Tulu Nadu (coastal Karnataka). Bisu Parba — the same solar new year, with a kani arrangement and the first ceremonial ploughing.

• Vishu kanji — Rice cooked with coconut milk and spices, eaten in the morning.
• Vishu katta — Rice and coconut milk set and cut into squares, served with jaggery.
• Sadya — The banana-leaf feast, with mambazha pulissery (ripe mango in curd) and the bitter veppampoo rasam among its dishes.

Vishu falls on Friday, 14 April 2028. Kerala's New Year, on the Sun's entry into Aries, greeted with the Vishukkani at dawn.

at sunrise

Vishu falls on Mesha Sankranti — the Sun's entry into sidereal Aries (Lahiri) — taken by the Malayalam calendar's rule to 14 or 15 April. The name 'Vishu' (equal) recalls the equinox the day once coincided with, before precession moved the two apart.

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