Every Sankranti of 2026 with the exact ingress moment: Makar Sankranti on 14 January at 14:47 IST, Mesha Sankranti (solar new year) on 14 April, through Dhanu Sankranti in December. Computed with the Lahiri ayanamsa, with punya kala guidance and regional festival names.
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Sankranti marks the Sun's entry into a new sidereal sign — happening 12 times per year. The table below computes the exact ingress moment of every 2026 Sankranti (IST, Lahiri ayanamsa), from Makara Sankranti on 14 January to Dhanu Sankranti in December.
Makara Sankranti (Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Uttarayan in Gujarat, Maghi after Lohri in Punjab, Magh Bihu in Assam) marks the start of Uttarayana — the Sun's northward half-year. Mesha Sankranti in April is the solar New Year kept as Baisakhi in Punjab, Pohela Boishakh in Bengal, Puthandu in Tamil Nadu, Vishu in Kerala and Bohag Bihu in Assam. Karka Sankranti in July opens Dakshinayana. Because a sankranti is a solar event, these dates hold nearly still against the seasons — unlike tithi festivals, which wander across the calendar from year to year.
Exact ingress moments — the instant the Sun enters each sidereal rashi — computed with the Lahiri ayanamsa. When the ingress falls in daylight, the punya kala is kept the same day.
| Date | Time (IST) | Sankranti | Kept as |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 January 2026 · Wed | 14:47 | Makara Sankranti | Makar Sankranti · Pongal (Tamil Nadu) · Uttarayan (Gujarat) · Maghi, after Lohri (Punjab) · Magh Bihu (Assam) · Makara Vilakku (Kerala) |
| 13 February 2026 · Fri | 03:46 | Kumbha Sankranti | — |
| 15 March 2026 · Sun | 00:38 | Meena Sankranti | — |
| 14 April 2026 · Tue | 09:06 | Mesha Sankranti | Mesha Sankranti — the solar new year: Baisakhi (Punjab) · Pohela Boishakh (Bengal) · Puthandu (Tamil Nadu) · Vishu (Kerala) · Bohag Bihu (Assam) |
| 15 May 2026 · Fri | 05:57 | Vrishabha Sankranti | — |
| 15 June 2026 · Mon | 12:31 | Mithuna Sankranti | — |
| 16 July 2026 · Thu | 23:22 | Karka Sankranti | Karka Sankranti — Dakshinayana begins; the Sun turns south |
| 17 August 2026 · Mon | 07:46 | Simha Sankranti | Simha Sankranti — Chingam 1, the Malayalam new year |
| 17 September 2026 · Thu | 07:44 | Kanya Sankranti | Kanya Sankranti — Vishwakarma Puja in Bengal, Odisha and Assam |
| 17 October 2026 · Sat | 19:42 | Tula Sankranti | Tula Sankranti — opens the Kartik bathing month in Odisha |
| 16 November 2026 · Mon | 19:31 | Vrischika Sankranti | — |
| 16 December 2026 · Wed | 10:11 | Dhanu Sankranti | Dhanu Sankranti — Dhanurmas / Margazhi month of dawn worship begins |
Computed 2026-08-17 · dates resolved for New Delhi, IST — the reference meridian printed panchangs use. The same tithi can resolve to a different civil date elsewhere on Earth.
Makar Sankranti 2026 falls on Wednesday, 14 January 2026. The Sun enters sidereal Makara at 14:47 IST — during daylight — so the punya kala falls the same afternoon. The 14-vs-15 confusion arises in years when the ingress happens after sunset, which pushes the observance to the next civil day. 2026 is not such a year.
The Sun crosses into sidereal Makara at 14:47 IST on 14 January 2026, computed with the Lahiri ayanamsa at the New Delhi reference meridian. The traditional Punya Kala runs from the ingress moment to sunset that afternoon.
Twelve — one for each sidereal sign the Sun enters. Four are widely kept as festivals: Makara (Uttarayana begins), Mesha (solar new year), Karka (Dakshinayana begins) and Kanya (Vishwakarma Puja). The full 2026 list with exact times is in the table on this page.
Because a sankranti follows the Sun, not the Moon. The sidereal solar year is almost exactly 365.25 days, so each ingress drifts by only a fraction of a day annually — Makara Sankranti has sat on 14–15 January for decades. Tithi-based festivals like Diwali move by up to a month because they follow the lunar calendar.
Positions from the shared Lahiri-sidereal ephemeris; sunrise by the NOAA solar calculator. Every date above is computed, not stored. How AskSoma computes things.
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AskSoma publishes this page. The explanatory writing is AI-drafted — by Soma, the same AI astrologer that answers inside the app — and published by the AskSoma team. No individual human author is credited, because none wrote it.
The astrology is not written from memory: every chart position, dasha period and panchang timing AskSoma shows is computed with the Swiss Ephemeris on the Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) ayanamsa. How we calculate.