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KarmaVaani

Festival · April

Baisakhi, Vishu and the solar new year

Also known as Puthandu, Bohag Bihu, Pohela Boishakh, Pana Sankranti

The sun enters Mesha (Aries), and much of India celebrates the new year and the harvest.

A Vishukkani arrangement: a bell-metal urli with rice, a golden cucumber, mango, jackfruit, gold-coloured konna flowers and a lit nilavilakku lamp

Mesha Sankranti, usually on 13 or 14 April, begins the solar year. Punjab celebrates Baisakhi as a harvest festival; Kerala keeps Vishu, waking to the Vishukkani; Tamil Nadu marks Puthandu; Assam dances Bohag Bihu; Bengal greets Pohela Boishakh; Odisha keeps Pana Sankranti.

Why it is kept

Where the year is reckoned by the sun, this is New Year’s Day.

Step by step

How to observe it

  1. See the Vishukkani

    In Kerala the first sight on waking is an arrangement of rice, fruit, gold, a mirror and konna flowers before Krishna.

  2. Give and receive

    Elders give gifts or money (Vishu kaineettam) to younger family members.

  3. Celebrate the harvest

    Baisakhi and Bohag Bihu are kept with dance, music and feasting.

Customs differ between regions, communities and families. Where your family or temple has its own way, follow it.

Fasting

Fasting

Not a fasting day.

Fasts should suit your health. Children, elders, pregnant women and anyone unwell or on medication should eat, or keep a lighter fast; that is the tradition, not an exception to it.

Traditions

  • Vishukkani, the first sight of the year
  • Harvest celebrations
  • New clothes and feasts