Makar Sankranti 2028मकर संक्रान्ति

Hindu date: Solar: the day the Sun enters Makara (Capricorn), not a lunar date.

It is kept on the day of the Sun's entry into Makara. When the entry happens after sunset, the punya kaal, and with it the festival, moves to the next day.

Dates are calculated for New Delhi. In other cities, and especially outside India, the tithi changes at a different local time, so a festival can fall a day earlier or later. Month names follow the Purnimanta calendar used in North India, where a month ends on Purnima. How we calculate

Unlike most Hindu festivals, Makar Sankranti follows the solar calendar, which is why it almost always falls on 14 or 15 January. It begins Uttarayana, the six months when the Sun moves north, a period the scriptures call auspicious: Bhishma Pitamah waited on his bed of arrows for Uttarayana before leaving his body.

It is also the harvest festival of much of India. The day is spent in bathing at sunrise in the Ganga or at the Sangam in Prayagraj and Ganga Sagar, giving sesame, jaggery, grain and blankets in charity, and sharing til-gud sweets. In Gujarat and Rajasthan the sky fills with kites.