Baisakhi, also spelled Vaisakhi, is celebrated in the middle of April. It is the festival of the spring harvest in Punjab and, for Sikhs everywhere, the anniversary of the day in 1699 when Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa at Anandpur Sahib. It is both a farmers’ festival and one of the two or three most important days of the Sikh year, and it is kept with processions, prayers, music and shared meals.
Two meanings
For farmers, the day marks the ripening of the rabi crop, chiefly wheat. Fairs are held in the villages, and the first cut of the harvest is celebrated with bhangra and gidda, with food stalls and gifts. For Sikhs, the day is Vaisakhi, when gurdwaras hold Akhand Path readings and large community kitchens, and the Nagar Kirtan processions led by the Panj Pyare move through towns from India to Birmingham, Surrey and Southall. The Khalsa Sajna Diwas is the formal name of the anniversary.
Many Hindus bathe in rivers and visit temples on the same day, which is also the beginning of the solar year in the Hindu solar calendar. The Sun enters Mesha, the sidereal sign Aries, and Hindu communities across India mark the same moment under different names.
One solar moment, many new years
The same ingress of the Sun gives a new year to several regions: Puthandu in Tamil Nadu, Pohela Boishakh in Bengal, Bohag or Rongali Bihu in Assam, Vishu in Kerala (see Vishu), and Baisakhi in Punjab. Each region fixes the civil day by its own custom, so these festivals can fall on neighbouring days even though the astronomical moment is the same.
How the date is fixed here
Baisakhi has no tithi; it follows the Sun alone. The rule used on this page is the civil date, in the place’s own standard time, of the Sun entering Mesha. Daylight saving time is ignored for this purpose: the date is the one on which the ingress falls on the clock of the place’s ordinary winter time. This matches what Drik Panchang lists in every case we compared, including cities where the ingress falls just after midnight on the clock but just before it in standard time.
The Mesha Sankranti moment is shown with each city’s date so you can see how close to midnight it falls. The sidereal zodiac uses the Lahiri ayanamsa, and the moment is accurate to a couple of minutes.
Why cities differ
The moment is one instant for the whole world. In India it can fall in the morning, in North America in the small hours, in Australia in the afternoon or evening. Where it falls near midnight the civil date can differ by a day between neighbouring places, which is why Baisakhi in New York or Toronto is listed a day earlier than in London or Delhi in some years. The 49 cities in the table each have their own result, and any other place can be checked on the any-city tool.
How the day is kept
Many families start with a bath and a visit to the gurdwara or temple. Homes prepare sweet kada prasad, kheer or sweet rice, and the midday meal is often a feast. Fairs, kite flying in some regions, and processions fill the day. In Sikh tradition, those who wish to take Amrit, the initiation of the Khalsa, often choose Vaisakhi for the ceremony. Outside India the nearest weekend is often used for the large public processions, so a Nagar Kirtan may fall on a different day from the date in the table.
A calm note
Please treat the date here as a guide for the festival’s astronomical day. Gurdwaras, temples and community bodies announce their own date, and the Nanakshahi calendar used by many Sikh organisations fixes Vaisakhi on a set day of the year rather than by the Sun’s entry. If your own community names a different day, follow it.