2025
Tuesday, 14 January 2025
The Sun enters Makara at 8:49 am on 14 Jan. So Makar Sankranti is on Tuesday, 14 January 2025.
2026
Wednesday, 14 January 2026
The Sun enters Makara at 2:59 pm on 14 Jan. So Makar Sankranti is on Wednesday, 14 January 2026.
How the date is fixed
Makar Sankranti is the day the Sun enters sidereal Makara. It is a solar festival, so its Gregorian date stays nearly the same every year.
About
Makar Sankranti is one of the few major festivals fixed by the Sun rather than the Moon. It marks the moment the Sun enters sidereal Makara, which with the Lahiri ayanamsa currently falls on 14 or 15 January; the date drifts about one day per 70 years. In the older tradition it also opens Uttarayana, the Sun's northward half-year, though the actual solstice is now three weeks earlier. The festival is kept under many names: Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Uttarayan in Gujarat, Maghi in Punjab and Magh Bihu in Assam. If the sankranti occurs after sunset, most panchangs assign the observance to the following day.
How it is observed
River bathing, offerings of til and jaggery, kite flying in Gujarat and the cooking of pongal or khichdi are the common observances.