Makar Sankranti 2027 Is a Solar Date

Makar Sankranti is the day Surya enters sidereal Makara. In 2027 that ingress is taken on 14 January in many almanacs and on 15 January in others. Lohri is often the night before. Pongal runs across the same solar days in Tamil homes. The festival does not consult the Moon. It consults the Sun.

A family in Allahabad still calls 14 January “the start of Uttarayan” and is half right. The Sun’s apparent northward turn, the tropical solstice, was around 21 December. Sidereal Makara, the rashi Jyotish uses, arrives about three weeks later because of ayanamsa. The til-gur laddu belongs to the sidereal ingress. The solstice belongs to another calendar. Mixing them is how people scold a pandit for being “late.”

What to do with a solar festival

Give sesame and jaggery, fly the kite if that is your city, and take the sankalpa in the name of Surya. Shani is still in Meena. Guru is still in Simha, a few weeks from slipping back into Karka on 25 January. Sankranti does not require a gemstone and does not cancel a retrograde that is not happening. It requires the Sun’s day to be noticed.

The difference from December is spelled out in Makar Sankranti and the winter solstice. A chart question about the year ahead still starts with a free Kundli.

Questions people keep asking

Is Makar Sankranti on 14 or 15 January 2027?

Both dates appear, because the exact ingress can fall near midnight and almanacs round differently. Follow the panchang that names the sankranti moment for your city.

Why isn’t it on 21 December?

21 December is the tropical solstice. Jyotish marks Surya’s entry into sidereal Makara, which now falls in mid-January.