Harvest, mid-January
Pongal & Makar Sankranti 2027
The January harvest festival under its many names — Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Sankranti in the north and west, Lohri in Punjab, Bihu in Assam — kept abroad with kite days and Tamil association gatherings.
- Pongal & Makar Sankranti 2026
- Wednesday, 14 January 2026
- Pongal & Makar Sankranti 2027
- Thursday, 14 January 2027
- Pongal & Makar Sankranti 2028
- Saturday, 15 January 2028
Pongal & Makar Sankranti near you
- No Pongal & Makar Sankranti events posted in Belgium yet — the page has the big celebrations and their dates.
Pongal & Makar Sankranti events near you
What Pongal & Makar Sankranti is
Makar Sankranti is one of the few Indian festivals on the solar calendar, so it falls on 14 January almost every year. It marks the sun’s turn north and the harvest. Tamil families cook pongal — rice boiled over in milk and jaggery — over four days; Gujaratis fly kites; Punjabis light Lohri bonfires the night before; Assam keeps Bhogali Bihu.
Abroad the Tamil associations hold Pongal celebrations on the nearest weekend with a cultural programme and a lunch; kite-flying days depend on the weather and a field.
Pongal & Makar Sankranti in Belgium
The Tamil community (both Indian and Sri Lankan) is large in Brussels and Antwerp, and the associations’ Pongal days are family events with a lunch.
Pongal & Makar Sankranti in Germany
The Tamil community, many of them Sri Lankan Tamil families settled for decades, celebrates Thai Pongal at the temples in Hamm, Berlin and elsewhere, with the rice boiled over in the temple courtyard.
Pongal & Makar Sankranti in the UK
London’s Tamil temples — in East Ham, Wimbledon, Tooting and Lewisham among others — hold Thai Pongal with the ritual boiling-over of the new rice, and Tamil schools and associations run cultural days across the country. Lohri bonfires are lit at Punjabi community events the night before Sankranti.
If it is your first one abroad
- Sugarcane and the sweets (til-gud, chikki) appear in the Indian grocers in the first week of January.
New Indian events near you, by email
Once a week, and only when something new is on within 10 km of where you live — garba nights, Diwali melas, meetups, concerts. Free, and one click switches it off.
Pongal & Makar Sankranti is better with people near you
Free, in every country. Everything below is ranked by how far it is from you.
- Groups near youJoin the Indian community groups in your city — chat, plans and people who get it.
- Events near youEvery festival, garba night and meetup, ranked by distance, with RSVP and reminders.
- Buy and sellSarees, kurtas, furniture, kitchen things — from people a few streets away.
- Rent near youRooms and flats from the community, with the person behind the listing one tap away.
Questions people ask
- When is Pongal in 2027?
- Thai Pongal is 14 January 2027, the same day as Makar Sankranti; Lohri is the evening before, 13 January.
Other festivals
Organising something?
Post it from the app under Events, wherever you are. It is free, a moderator checks it, and it appears here and to every member nearby. Running several a year? Email hello@namaste.community for a listing invite.