Hindu Nav Varsh 2027

About Hindu Nav Varsh

Hindu Nav Varsh, or Nav Samvatsar, is the start of the Vikram Samvat year on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, the first day of the bright half of Chaitra, and in 2027 it falls on Wednesday, 7 April 2027. The same day is Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra, Ugadi in the Telugu and Kannada lands, Navreh for Kashmiri Pandits and the first day of Chaitra Navratri.

Hindu Nav Varsh is one date with many names. On the morning after the new moon of Chaitra, Hindi-speaking families mark Nav Samvatsar, Maharashtra raises the gudi for Gudi Padwa, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka eat the six-taste pachadi for Ugadi, Kashmiri Pandits uncover the Navreh thaal, and homes across north India install the kalash for Chaitra Navratri. The central government's restricted-holiday list puts all of these on a single line: Chaitra Sukladi, Gudi Padava, Ugadi, Cheti Chand, 1st Navratra.

Which year begins today

The year that turns over is the Vikram Samvat, the lunisolar era most north Indian panchangs count in. It runs about 57 years ahead of the Common Era, so add 57 to the current year to get the Samvat year after the new year, and 56 before it. The Samvat year that began on 19 March 2026 was 2083, and it was a long one: 13 lunar months, because an extra month was added that year to keep the lunar calendar in step with the seasons.

Tradition credits the era to King Vikramaditya of Ujjain, who is said to have founded it after defeating the Shakas in 57 BCE. Historians are less certain. The era was called Krita or the Malava era in its early inscriptions, and the name Vikrama appears only from the ninth century, with the earliest known example from Dholpur in 842 CE.

Not every Hindu changes year on this day:

• Gujarat uses the same Vikram Samvat but starts the year on Kartika Shukla Pratipada, the day after Diwali, which is Bestu Varas.
• Punjab, Nepal and much of the east and south follow solar new years in mid-April, such as Vaisakhi.
• The Indian national calendar, the reformed Saka calendar used in the Gazette, begins its Chaitra on a fixed date, 22 March (21 March in leap years). That is a different Chaitra from the lunar one here, and the two usually fall on different days.

How the date is set

The new year begins on Pratipada, the first lunar day of the bright fortnight of Chaitra, as it stands at sunrise. In practice that is the morning after the Chaitra new moon, which is why the date moves between mid-March and mid-April.

Panchangs also name a "king" of each new year: the planet that rules the weekday on which the year begins. The Samvat year that began on a Thursday in 2026 was given Jupiter as its king and Mars as its minister, and the new almanacs set out what such a pairing is said to bring for rain, crops and the year's fortunes. This forecast, the samvatsar phal, is part of what people mean when they say they are "reading the new panchang".

How the morning goes in north India

Customs vary by family, but a common pattern runs like this. People bathe early and offer water to the sun. A toran, the leaf-and-flower vandanvar, goes up over the main door. The family worships its ishta devata with sandal paste, rice and flowers, and in homes keeping Navratri, the kalash is installed and barley is sown for the next nine days.

Then comes the bitter part. Many families eat a few tender neem leaves with mishri or jaggery after the puja; some grind the neem with black pepper, salt, hing, cumin and tamarind instead. The bitter and the sweet stand for the year ahead, which will bring both. The neem is also traditionally understood as a guard against the infections of the coming hot season.

Puranic tradition holds that Brahma began creating the world on this day, which is why many treat it as a good day to begin something new.

Navreh, the Kashmiri Pandit new year

Navreh is dedicated to the goddess Sharika, whose shrine is on Hari Parbat in Srinagar. On the eve, the family fills a large thali with uncooked rice and sets on it the new almanac, flowers, a bitter herb called wye, walnuts, curd, a pen and inkpot, coins, salt, bread and a mirror, then covers it. On the morning of Navreh the family gathers, uncovers it and looks at it together. The bitter herb is eaten with walnuts for the same reason the north eats neem with mishri, and some walnuts are later offered to a river.

Since the displacement of the 1990s, Navreh is kept in Jammu and in cities across India and abroad as much as in the Valley, with gatherings at temples in Jammu and early-morning crowds at Hari Parbat and the Kheer Bhawani shrine at Tulmulla. In March 2026 a community body announced plans to hold the Navreh Mahotsav in Kashmir again. In recent years Navreh has fallen on the same day as Gudi Padwa, but Kashmiri families go by their own almanac, so check it if the dates differ.

What to write

How to wish someone on Hindu Nav Varsh

A Nav Samvatsar wish works best in Hindi and close to the family's actual morning: the puja, the bitter neem with sweet mishri, the kalash going in for Navratri. Wish a year that holds both the bitter and the sweet, as the neem does. For a Marathi, Telugu, Kannada, Kashmiri or Sindhi friend, use their own name for the day instead. Gujarati friends change their year at Diwali, so wish them the day, not their new year.

Write a few lines in your own words, pick a design and share it as one link on WhatsApp, Instagram or anywhere else. They open an animated card made just for them, with no app and no sign-up.

Language tip: English, Hindi + Kashmiri.

When is Hindu Nav Varsh in each year?

Hindu Nav Varsh is set by the Hindu lunisolar calendar, so it falls on a different date each year. In 2027 it falls 19 days later than in 2026.

Frequently asked questions