Next: about 14 Apr 2027
Odia New Year (Pana Sankranti)
The Odia new year is met with a cooling pana drink, a temple visit and new cotton or silk sarees of Odisha.
What is worn for Odia New Year (Pana Sankranti)
Pana Sankranti, also called Maha Vishuva Sankranti, is the Odia new year, when the sun enters Aries, usually on 14 April. Households make pana, a cool drink of fruit, jaggery, curd and spice, and offer it to the gods, and temples hold special rites. People bathe, wear new clothes and visit temples and elders. Women choose a new cotton or silk saree of Odisha. Sambalpuri ikat, Bomkai and Khandua are the weaves of the state, and the heat of April makes cotton the usual choice. At some temples devotees take part in Jhamu Yatra, a fire walking rite, in the first week of the new year. The date can be the 14th or the 15th by the local almanac.
The sarees
Written by the EveryPallu desk with AI assistance. Background: "Maha Bishuba Sankranti" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Sambalpuri saree: Rahul191313, CC BY-SA 4.0, source