Makar Sankranti 2027 falls on Friday, January 15. The Sun enters Capricorn at 9:14 PM IST on January 14, 2027. That is after sunset, so the punyakaal for bathing and charity moves to the next day, January 15: in New Delhi the punyakaal runs 7:15 AM to 5:46 PM and the Maha Punyakaal 7:15 AM to 9:00 AM (Drik Panchang).
What the day marks
This is the start of Uttarayan, as the Sun turns from its southward to its northward course. Lohri in Punjab falls the evening before, on January 14, while Pongal in Tamil Nadu and Magh Bihu in Assam fall on January 15 itself. Sharing til-gud (sesame and jaggery), flying kites, and a holy dip in the Ganga are the day’s traditions.
When the punyakaal falls
When the Sankranti moment falls in daylight, the punyakaal runs from that moment to sunset. When it falls after sunset, as in 2027, the punyakaal moves to the next day’s daylight hours: 7:15 AM to 5:46 PM on January 15 in New Delhi.
The Maha Punyakaal window
Within the broader punyakaal, panchang makers mark out a narrower Maha Punyakaal, a shorter window at the start of the punyakaal. In 2027 it is 7:15 AM to 9:00 AM on January 15 in New Delhi (Drik Panchang). Charity given in this shorter window is held to carry more merit than the same act done later in the day. Families who take this seriously plan the bath and the first round of donations to land inside those two hours rather than stretching it across the whole afternoon.
What actually gets given also follows a pattern. Til (black sesame) and gud (jaggery) come first, usually as laddoos or a simple mixed offering, since the whole festival takes its common name from that pairing. Beyond sweets, the customary donation list includes khichdi (rice and lentils), woollen blankets or shawls, and a small earthen lamp filled with til oil. Many households donate in units tied to the family, one set of items per member, rather than a single lump offering, and give to a temple or to someone who needs the warmth more than a token amount matters in January.
Why the date has drifted from mid-January
Makar Sankranti is unusual among major Hindu festivals because it follows the solar calendar, not the lunar one. Most festival dates (Diwali, Navratri, Holi) shift by weeks year to year since they track the Moon; Sankranti tracks the Sun’s sidereal position and so lands on nearly the same Gregorian date every year, typically January 14 or 15.
“Nearly the same” is doing real work in that sentence. Because of the precession of the equinoxes, the sidereal zodiac slips against the fixed Gregorian calendar by roughly one day every 70 to 80 years. Two centuries ago Sankranti fell around January 12; by the year 2100 it will have moved to around January 15 or 16, and by 2200 to around January 16 or 17. The panchang calculation accounts for this automatically, which is why the date creeps a day later every few generations even though nobody changes the ritual itself.
Kite flying: the part that needs a safety note
In Gujarat especially, where the day is known as Uttarayan, kite flying isn’t a side activity, it’s the main event, with rooftops full of families from sunrise well into the evening. The one thing worth knowing if you’re new to it or bringing kids along: the glass-coated cotton thread traditionally used to cut rival kites, called manjha, has been banned or restricted in several Indian cities and states because of injuries to birds, and to two-wheeler riders whose necks catch a stray line at road level. Plain cotton thread without the glass coating is the safer, and now often the only legal, option in those places. If you’re flying kites with family visiting from abroad who haven’t seen this before, it’s worth mentioning upfront rather than letting them find out the hard way.
Check the timing for your city
Check the muhurat page with your city selected for that day’s sunrise.