Thai Pongal: 2026 and 2027 dates by city

Tamil harvest festival on the first day of Thai; rice boiled in milk for the Sun.

Thai Pongal is the Tamil harvest festival on the first day of the solar month of Thai, when the Sun enters sidereal Capricorn. It thanks the Sun, the earth and the cattle for the harvest. The word pongal means 'to boil over', and the overflowing pot is the sign of an abundant year.

Families draw kolam patterns at the doorway, cook new rice with milk and jaggery in a clay pot outdoors and shout 'Pongalo Pongal!' as it boils over. The first portion is offered to the Sun. The days around it are Bhogi, when old things are discarded, and Mattu Pongal, when cows and bullocks are honoured.

How the date is set

The day the Sun enters sidereal Capricorn (sankranti). If it enters after sunset, the festival is kept the next day.

Dates in 2026 and 2027

The local date in each city; under it, the time of the part of the day the rule looks at, in local time.

In 2026 Delhi keeps it on 14 January; a day apart from that: Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney.

In 2027 Delhi keeps it on 15 January; a day apart from that: London, New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, Chicago, Paris, Madrid, Rome, São Paulo, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Lisbon.

Smarta rules as published by Drik Panchang. ISKCON and regional calendars can name another day. The time shown is the part of the day the rule looks at, not a muhurat for a particular puja.

How to read the table

Each row is a city from our panchang list, and the date is the local civil date on which Thai Pongal is kept there by its rule. Under the date is the time of the part of the day that rule looks at, in the city's own local time: for example the pradosh kala, the evening after sunset, or the nishita around midnight. A time past midnight carries (+1). Where the rule names no part of the day, such as a solar ingress or a festival tied to another festival, only the date is given. The city's name opens its panchang for today.

Why the date can differ between cities

A tithi begins and ends at the same moment everywhere, but sunrise, noon and evening come at different local times. If the tithi ends shortly before the evening in one city and shortly after it in another, the two cities keep the festival on different dates. That is why a single date for the whole world is wrong for some places, and why this page gives the date city by city. The difference is almost always one day.

Which calendar this follows

These are the Smarta dates, by the decision rules of the Dharmasindhu and Nirnayasindhu as Drik Panchang publishes them; every city in the table was compared with Drik Panchang's calendar for that city. ISKCON keeps some days, Janmashtami among them, by the Vaishnava rule, and regional calendars can name another day. If your family or temple follows a particular calendar, follow it.

Questions

See also

• Delhi
• Hindu festivals 2026–2027
• Makar Sankranti
• Mauni Amavasya

Positions and tables: sidereal zodiac, Lahiri ayanamsha — the same as professional Jyotish astrologers use, and the same calculation as the charts in JyotiSoft. Updated 2026-10-17.