Makar Sankranti 2027 is on Friday 15 January 2027. The Sun enters sidereal Capricorn on Thursday 14 January at 21:10 IST, which is after sunset everywhere in India, so the festival and its punya kaal move to the next morning: in New Delhi the punya kaal is 07:14 to 12:30 on 15 January.
If you have seen 14 January on a calendar, that is not a typing error either. Below we explain the rule that decides the day, give the punya kaal for major cities, and look at why Makar Sankranti has slowly moved from the 14th towards the 15th over the decades.
The rule that decides the day
A sankranti is the moment the Sun crosses from one sidereal sign into the next. Makar Sankranti is the crossing into Capricorn (Makara). The festival day follows a simple rule, which our engine applies as written:
The day the Sun enters sidereal Capricorn. If the ingress is after sunset, the festival and its punya kaal move to the next day.
The reasoning in the dharma texts is that bathing, charity and worship for a sankranti belong to daylight. When the Sun changes sign during the night, the merit of the moment is taken in the following morning. In 2027 the crossing happens at 21:10, well after sunset on the 14th in every Indian city, so the 15th is the day in all of them.
This same moment ends the Dhanu kharmas that began on 16 December 2026; see kharmas 2026 and our post on kharmas 2026–27.
Punya kaal on 15 January 2027, by city
Punya kaal is the window for the sankranti snan, daan and Surya puja. Our engine starts it at local sunrise on 15 January and ends it in the late morning, so both ends move with each city's sunrise. The ingress moment (21:10 on 14 January) is the same everywhere.
| City | Sunrise | Punya kaal |
|---|---|---|
| New Delhi | 07:14 | 07:14 – 12:30 |
| Mumbai | 07:14 | 07:14 – 12:47 |
| Kolkata | 06:18 | 06:18 – 11:45 |
| Chennai | 06:35 | 06:35 – 12:18 |
| Bengaluru | 06:45 | 06:45 – 12:28 |
| Hyderabad | 06:49 | 06:49 – 12:25 |
| Lucknow | 06:56 | 06:56 – 12:15 |
| Patna | 06:37 | 06:37 – 11:58 |
| Jaipur | 07:17 | 07:17 – 12:36 |
| Varanasi | 06:45 | 06:45 – 12:07 |
| Prayagraj | 06:50 | 06:50 – 12:11 |
| Ahmedabad | 07:22 | 07:22 – 12:48 |
| Pune | 07:09 | 07:09 – 12:43 |
| Bhopal | 07:03 | 07:03 – 12:29 |
| Indore | 07:09 | 07:09 – 12:35 |
| Chandigarh | 07:21 | 07:21 – 12:32 |
| Amritsar | 07:30 | 07:30 – 12:39 |
| Guwahati | 06:12 | 06:12 – 11:32 |
Times are IST, sunrise taken as the upper limb of the Sun on a flat horizon with standard refraction. For a city not listed, open its panchang, for example Varanasi, Prayagraj or New Delhi, or the Makar Sankranti page, which has the full city table.
Why the date drifted from 14 towards 15 January
Many people remember Makar Sankranti as a fixed 14 January. It was never truly fixed, and the reason lies in which zodiac the festival follows.
Sidereal, not tropical
Indian astrology uses the sidereal zodiac, anchored to the fixed stars. Western astrology uses the tropical zodiac, anchored to the seasons: the Sun enters tropical Capricorn at the winter solstice on 21 or 22 December. Because the Earth's axis slowly wobbles (the precession of the equinoxes), the two zodiacs slide apart over the centuries. The gap between them is called the ayanamsa. We use the Lahiri ayanamsa, the standard of Indian almanacs.
As the ayanamsa grows, the Sun's arrival in sidereal Capricorn comes a little later in the calendar year. Over a human lifetime the change is small; over several generations it adds up to about a day. That is why the festival that once usually fell on 14 January now often falls on the 15th in this era. Our post on Vedic vs Western sun signs explains the same gap for your birth sign.
The leap-year rhythm
On top of that slow drift there is a four-year rhythm. The solar year is about a quarter of a day longer than 365 days, so the moment of the ingress shifts later each year and jumps back after a leap day. In some years it lands before sunset on the 14th, and the festival is on the 14th; in other years, like 2027, it lands in the evening or night, and the festival moves to the 15th. You cannot simply assume last year's date.
Why some calendars still print 14 January
When two calendars disagree on Makar Sankranti, it is usually about convention, not astronomy. Everyone agrees on the moment: 14 January 2027, 21:10 IST, per Lahiri. The difference is which day they assign it to.
- Some calendars mark the civil date on which the sign change happens, without moving it for a night ingress. They will show 14 January.
- Some regional traditions keep a fixed customary date, or use a midnight rule for the day boundary.
- Calendars using a different ayanamsa compute a slightly different moment, which can matter in a year when the ingress falls close to sunset.
We follow the sunset rule because it is what the dharma texts lay down for a night sankranti and what North Indian almanacs commonly use for the snan and daan. If your family or temple keeps 14 January, that is a living tradition, and the moment of the ingress (late on the 14th) is not in dispute.
The festivals around it
Makar Sankranti sits in a cluster of harvest festivals. Lohri, the bonfire festival of Punjab, is kept on the evening before Makar Sankranti, so in 2027 it falls on Thursday 14 January. In Tamil Nadu, Pongal begins with Bhogi on 14 January, and Thai Pongal is on 15 January, the same day as Makar Sankranti, followed by Mattu Pongal on the 16th and Kaanum Pongal on the 17th. Our post on Lohri and Pongal 2027 covers them in detail. The same day is called Uttarayan in Gujarat, Magh Bihu in Assam and Khichdi in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Because the end of kharmas comes with this ingress, 15 January 2027 is also the first date in our vivah muhurat calendar after the winter break.
Try it yourself
Open the free Makar Sankranti page for the date, the ingress moment and the punya kaal for 28 cities, or your own city's panchang for sunrise, tithi and Rahu kaal on 15 January. The festivals calendar lists every festival of 2027.