Ugadi
When it falls
The date shifts because it tracks the moon, not the Gregorian calendar.
Calculated for India (IST) using precise Panchang astronomy. Dates can shift by a day at locations far to the east or west.
Significance & story
Ugadi marks the start of a new year in the lunar reckoning followed across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. The name comes from yuga (age) and adi (beginning) — the beginning of a new cycle. It falls on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, the first day of the bright half of the first lunar month, when the spring crops are in and the old year is treated as closed.
By tradition this is held to be the day creation began, and the day many older almanacs use as their starting point for the year ahead. Each year carries its own name in a sixty-year cycle. Households use the day to take stock of the year that has passed and to mark the one beginning.
The defining custom is the Ugadi pachadi, a small preparation that combines six tastes — neem flowers for bitterness, jaggery for sweetness, tamarind for sourness, salt, raw mango for tang, and chilli for heat. Eaten first thing, it is a plain reminder that the year ahead will hold all of these, taken together rather than chosen between.
Rituals & observance
How Ugadi is kept:
- The day usually begins with an oil bath before sunrise and fresh or new clothes, marking a clean start to the year.
- The Ugadi pachadi is prepared and eaten first — a single dish blending all six tastes (bitter, sweet, sour, salty, tangy and hot) as a reminder that the year holds all of them.
- Doorways are decorated with mango leaves (toranam) and rangoli; homes are cleaned thoroughly in the days before.
- Many attend a panchanga shravanam — a public reading of the new year's almanac at the temple, where the priest outlines the forecast for rains, harvest and the months ahead.
- Families cook a festive meal, often with pulihora (tamarind rice), bobbatlu/holige (sweet stuffed flatbread) and seasonal mango.
Regional variations
How this date is determined
Observed on the Pratipada tithi of Chaitra (Shukla paksha), reckoned by sunrise (udaya tithi). Should the tithi fall across two days, tradition keeps the earlier day (purva-viddha).
Dates are computed to astronomical precision (NASA/JPL ephemeris), in line with traditional panchang.
