Festivals · Sankranti

Makar Sankranti 2026: The Computed Date, Time and Punya Kaal

By Dr. R.P. Sharma, Vedic astrologer since 1979 · times computed on real sidereal positions

Makar Sankranti 2026 falls on Wednesday, 14 January 2026, with the Sun entering sidereal Makara (Capricorn) at 15:07 IST — a figure computed from the ephemeris with the Lahiri ayanamsa, the way a Panchang actually derives it. And the punya kaal runs through that afternoon, from the sankranti moment to sunset.

Why this festival follows the Sun, not the Moon

Nearly every Hindu festival wanders across the English calendar because it rides the tithi. Makar Sankranti is the great exception: it is a solar event — the Sun's ingress into Makara — which is why it sits almost still on 14–15 January year after year, drifting only with the slow creep of the ayanamsa. A sankranti is simply the Sun changing signs; there are twelve each year, and Makara's is counted the most sacred of them all.

Uttarayana — the honest note

Tradition celebrates this day as the start of Uttarayana, the Sun's northward journey. Astronomically, the northward turn happens at the December solstice, around the 21st–22nd; the mid-January date is the sidereal Makara ingress, separated from the solstice by the ayanamsa. This is not a flaw discovered by the internet — the classical astronomers documented it themselves. The festival follows the sidereal calendar, and knowing the distinction only deepens the respect for how carefully our ancestors measured the sky.

The observances that matter

The day's dharma is beautifully simple: a bath at a sacred river or at home during the punya kaal; daan — til (sesame), gud (jaggery), khichdi grains, warm clothes to those who need them; surya-vandana; and the sweets that give the day its taste, til-gud in the west, feasts of Pongal in the south, Magh Bihu in the east, kites over the whole northern sky. Fix any important beginning for the day against the full Panchang — our muhurat guide explains the method — and see the year's festival calendar in the festivals overview.

Sankranti and your own chart

Medini tradition reads each sankranti chart for the season it opens; personally, the transit matters most where Makara holds weight in your kundli — lagna, Moon sign, or the tenth house it naturally signifies. If 2026 opens a serious chapter for you, the useful reading is of your own chart against the year, not the festival's chart alone.

Makar Sankranti 2027: Exact Date, Time & Punya Kaal