Pausha Month in the Hindu Calendar: Makar Sankranti Season and Dates

Pausha is the cold heart of the northern year. The nights are long, mist lies over the fields, and the festivals of the month are about warmth, harvest and the turn of the Sun. The name comes from the nakshatra Pushya, which means nourishment, in which the full moon usually stands. Pushya is regarded as one of the kindest of the nakshatras.

Pausha is the month that carries the Sun’s journey north. The solar festival of Makar Sankranti, when the Sun enters Makara, is fixed by the Sun and not by the Moon, but it falls inside Pausha in most years, and many families treat the lunar month and the solar turn as one season. In the table below, the Pausha that begins on 20 December 2025 holds the 2026 Sankranti, and each later Pausha in the table holds the Sankranti of its own January.

Pausha is the tenth month of the lunar year as counted from Chaitra, and the second of the two months of Hemanta, the season of the cool season before winter. The nakshatra behind the name is Pushya, the nourishing one. To see where Pausha sits between Margashirsha and Magha, read the page on the lunar year, and for the year that counts these months see Vikram Samvat.

Kharmas and the end of the Sun’s southern course

For about a month before Makar Sankranti the Sun is in Dhanu, and the period is called Kharmas or Dhanurmas. Many north Indian families avoid weddings, griha pravesh and similar new undertakings during Kharmas, and resume them after Sankranti. Tamil Nadu treats the same period, Margazhi, as the most devotional month. The practice is regional, and families differ in how strictly they follow it. See our muhurat guidance for how the rule is applied.

Festivals of Pausha

Makar Sankranti is the Sun’s entry into Makara. The festival is known as Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Uttarayan in Gujarat, with the kite flying, and Lohri in Punjab on the evening before. Pausha Putrada Ekadashi falls on Shukla Ekadashi and is kept by families who wish for children. Shakambhari Navratri is kept by some from Shukla Ashtami to the full moon, in honour of the Goddess as nourisher of plants. Pausha Purnima is the full moon on which, in tradition, the month-long Magh Mela on the river bank at Prayagraj begins, with the Kalpavas, a period of simple living by the river.

Two labels for the first half

The dark half of amanta Margashirsha is Pausha Krishna paksha in the north, and so the north’s Pausha begins about two weeks before the table shows. The Sankranti is the same day under either system.

Pausha in 2026 and 2027: dates

These are the instants at which each amanta month named Pausha begins and ends, taken from a computation of the new moon in Indian Standard Time. In each row the Pausha bright half (Shukla paksha) opens at the new moon and runs to the full moon about a fortnight later, and the dark half (Krishna paksha) carries on to the next new moon. The first row starts in December 2025 because that Pausha holds the January of 2026.

In purnimanta reckoning, the month called Pausha starts at the full moon that falls inside the amanta Margashirsha, so it begins about two weeks before each date in the Starts column, and it ends at the full moon inside the amanta Pausha. The bright half is identical in both systems. Only the dark half changes its name: the fortnight that closes each amanta Pausha in the table is called Magha Krishna paksha in the purnimanta count. The full moon that splits Pausha in two is listed for your own city on the Purnima page, and the method page explains how these instants were calculated.

Ekadashis in Pausha

The bright half of Pausha has Putrada Ekadashi, and the dark half of the amanta month has Shattila Ekadashi, which printed purnimanta lists place under Magha. Each Ekadashi name stays fixed in every system, and only the month label moves for the Pausha dark half. How to keep the fast is in the Ekadashi vrat vidhi, and the Ekadashi festival page gives the Pausha days for your city.

Pausha in regional calendars

Marathi calendars write Paush and Gujarati calendars Posh. Tamil calendars follow the Sun, and the solar months that usually overlap Pausha are Margazhi and Thai. The overlapping Malayalam months are Dhanu and Makaram, the Bengali months are Poush and Magh, and the Punjabi months are Poh and Magh. Tamil Thai and Malayalam Makaram begin when the Sun enters Makara, with Pongal and Sankranti in the first days. The pairing is approximate: a solar month starts when the Sun enters a sign, so the lunar Pausha overlaps those months without matching their dates.

Related pages

The month before is Margashirsha and the month after is Magha. To see why Pausha can carry two labels, read the page on amanta and purnimanta, and for today’s tithi and nakshatra open the panchang. All twelve months are on the Hindu calendar hub.

Frequently asked questions