Magh Bihu 2027

About Magh Bihu

Magh Bihu, also called Bhogali Bihu, is Assam's harvest festival of feasting, kept on the first day of the Assamese month of Magh. In 2027 it falls on Friday, 15 January 2027, with the Uruka night feast the evening before. Granaries are full by now, so the festival is built around food: a community dinner, a bonfire called the meji burnt at dawn, and days of pitha, laru, curd and flattened rice.

Bhogali comes from bhog, eating. That is the honest name for this festival. The paddy is in, the granaries are full, and Assam spends a night and a morning eating its way through the harvest.

Magh Bihu is the first day of Magh in the Assamese calendar, which starts when the Sun enters Makara. The same solar moment is Makar Sankranti in the north, Pongal in Tamil Nadu and Maghi the day after Lohri in Punjab. The evening before Magh Bihu, the last day of Puh, is Uruka, and in practice Uruka is the night everybody waits for.

How is Magh Bihu celebrated?

Magh Bihu is celebrated over two days: Uruka, the night before, with the meji built and a communal dinner cooked outdoors, and Magh Bihu itself, when the meji is lit before dawn and the day goes to visiting and games.

1. Uruka, afternoon
   Building the meji and the bhelaghar

   Young men put up a conical stack of firewood, green bamboo, hay and dry banana leaves in a field, and beside it a temporary hut of bamboo and thatch.

2. Uruka, daytime
   Community fishing

   Villages fish the ponds and beels together, and the catch goes into the night's dinner. Vegetables and firewood collected from neighbours' gardens are an old licence of the night, returned in kind the next day.

3. Uruka, night
   The bhuj

   The big communal dinner, cooked and eaten outdoors. Fish, duck or mutton with rice, and the young stay up in the bhelaghar with a fire going.

4. Magh Bihu, before dawn
   Bath, then the meji is lit

   The family bathes, and the eldest member sets the meji alight. Pitha, betel nut and leaf are offered into the fire, and prayers are said for the year.

5. Magh Bihu, morning
   The bhelaghar burns, the ash goes out

   The hut is burnt too, and the ashes are scattered on the fields as manure. Potatoes and yams buried in the embers come out for breakfast.

6. Magh Bihu, rest of the day
   Visiting and games

   Elders are greeted, houses are visited, and villages hold tekeli bhonga and other contests.

What food is eaten on Magh Bihu?

Pitha is the centre of the Magh Bihu meal. Til pitha is a rolled rice cake stuffed with black sesame and jaggery, ghila pitha is fried, and sunga pitha is rice batter cooked inside a green bamboo tube over the fire, which is why it smells faintly of bamboo. Laru, or laroo, are sweet balls of coconut or sesame bound with jaggery.

Alongside them go chira and akhoi (flattened and puffed rice), doi (curd), cream, and dark date-palm gur. Kumol saul, a soft rice grown in Assam that needs no cooking, is soaked in water or milk with curd and gur and eaten straight. The savoury side is fish from the morning's catch, duck curry with ash gourd, and mutton.

What games are played on Magh Bihu?

Tekeli bhonga is the Magh Bihu game you will see everywhere: a clay pot hung on a line, a blindfold, a stick, and a crowd shouting wrong directions. Egg fights and buffalo races also run in places.

Buffalo fights, moh juj, have been held around Magh Bihu in Ahatguri in Morigaon district and parts of Nagaon and Sivasagar for a long time, and bulbul fights were staged at the Hayagriva Madhava temple at Hajo. They stopped after the Supreme Court's 2014 ruling against using animals in such events. The Assam cabinet cleared a standard operating procedure in December 2023 to allow them again in places with a long tradition, and the Gauhati High Court struck that procedure down in December 2024 after petitions from animal welfare groups. The position has changed more than once, so check before planning a trip around one.

Three Bihus, not one

Outside Assam, Bihu usually means the April festival with the dance. Assam keeps three, and they are not alike.

The word Bihu is traced to bisu in the Deori language, meaning great joy. Assamese Hindus keep these festivals, and so do many other communities of the state in their own forms, with Bodo, Dimasa, Tiwa and Rabha families using their own names and customs for the same seasons.

What to write

Uruka

The eve of Magh Bihu, when the community feast is held

Meji

The conical bonfire of wood, bamboo and hay, lit at dawn on Bihu morning

Bhelaghar

A temporary bamboo and thatch hut where the young spend Uruka night, burnt the next morning

Pitha

Rice cakes; til pitha is stuffed with sesame and jaggery, sunga pitha is cooked in a bamboo tube

Laru

Sweet balls of coconut or sesame bound with jaggery

Kumol saul

A soft Assamese rice eaten soaked in water or milk, with curd and gur

Magh Bihur xubhechha

Greetings on Magh Bihu, the usual Assamese wish

How to wish someone on Magh Bihu

Assamese wishes for this festival are short and food-shaped. "Magh Bihur xubhechha" or "Bhogali Bihur xubhechha" is what people write. Mention the Uruka dinner, the meji at dawn, the pithas someone's mother makes, or the fish caught that morning. If your friend is away from Assam, say so plainly; this is the festival Assamese families most miss when they cannot get home.

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 + regional language.

When is Magh Bihu in 2026 and 2027?

Magh Bihu is set by the Hindu solar calendar, so it falls on a different date each year. In 2027 it falls 1 day later than in 2026.

Frequently asked questions