Gudi Padwa 2027: the new year and the gudi
Gudi Padwa is the Marathi new year, the first day of the bright half of Chaitra. At dawn each home raises a gudi at its door or window, a staff crowned with an upturned pot, a bright cloth and a garland.
When it falls next
Gudi Padwa in each region
What Gudi Padwa is
The day begins the year of the Shalivahan Shaka, the era of the Marathi calendar. The tradition remembers it as the day Brahma began creation, and many families also remember it as the day Rama returned to Ayodhya.
The gudi is raised as a flag of the new year and of welcome. It is counted among the days auspicious in themselves, so many families begin something new on it: a new home, a new vehicle, a new venture.
How families keep it at home
The family rises early for an oil bath. A rangoli is drawn at the door, and the doorway is hung with a toran of mango leaves and marigolds.
The gudi is made on a long bamboo staff: a new cloth, often silk, is tied at the top, a garland of neem leaves and flowers and a string of sugar crystals, the gathi, are added, and a copper or silver pot is set upside down over it. It is raised to the right of the door, worshipped, and taken down before sunset.
The first thing eaten is a paste of neem leaves with jaggery, tamarind and cumin, bitter and sweet together, for the year to come. Puran poli or shrikhand is made for the meal.
Many families listen to the panchang of the new year being read, the forecast of the year in the tradition.
How it differs by region
In Maharashtra and Goa the day is Gudi Padwa, with processions of the new year in many towns.
In Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana the same day is Ugadi, with its own dish of six tastes, and in Sindhi homes it is Cheti Chand.
Elsewhere it opens the nine days of Chaitra Navratri, which end with Ram Navami.
How its date is set
Gudi Padwa is the pratipada of the bright half of Chaitra, the first tithi of the lunar year where months end at the new moon, kept on the day the pratipada holds at sunrise.
Read the Rama aarti and see the Brahma yantra card.