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 2027
- Thursday, 14 January 2027
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.
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.
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
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