About Vishu
Vishu is the Kerala solar new year, the first day of the Malayalam month of Medam, and in 2027 it falls on Thursday, 15 April 2027. The day turns on one private ritual: the first thing a Malayali sees on waking is the Vishukkani, a tray of gold, grain, fruit and yellow konna flowers set up the night before by an elder of the house.
The name comes from the Sanskrit vishuvam, equal. It once marked the day when light and dark were the same length. They are no longer the same length on Vishu. The Earth's axis wobbles, the equinox has slid back through the calendar, and the spring equinox now falls around 21 March, about three and a half weeks before Vishu. The festival kept the date and lost the astronomy, which is worth knowing before you repeat the line about equal day and night in a card.
What Vishu actually marks is Medam 1, the day the Sun enters Mesha in the sidereal zodiac, and the start of the older of Kerala's two new years. The Kollam era calendar adopted in 825 CE moved the official year-start to Chingam 1 in August. Medam 1 stayed on as Vishu.
What is the Vishukkani?
The Vishukkani is the first sight of the year on Vishu, arranged the night before so it is the first thing each person sees. Kani means what is seen first, and the whole festival is the attempt to control that one image.
- The night beforeAn elder, usually the mother or grandmother, arranges everything after the rest of the house has gone to bed. Nobody else is meant to see it.
- The vesselA wide uruli of bell metal or panchaloha, set in the puja room in front of a Krishna or Vishnu image and a lit nilavilakku.
- What goes inRaw rice and a golden cucumber, a split coconut, mango, jackfruit, betel leaves and arecanut, a yellow konna sprig, gold or coins, a new kasavu mundu, and often a copy of the Ramayana.
- The mirrorA valkannadi, the handled metal mirror of Aranmula, is propped inside so that your own face is part of what you see. The point is that you count among the good things, not just the gold.
- Waking the houseThe elder wakes first, lights the lamp, then leads each person in with their eyes shut or covered, and lets them open them in front of the kani.
- AfterwardsKaineettam is handed out, the crackers start, and the family reads a few lines of the Ramayana at random as a reading of the year.
The flower is not decoration. Kanikkonna, the Indian laburnum, blooms in Kerala almost exactly in the weeks around Vishu and is the state flower. A house without a konna tree borrows sprigs from a neighbour, and in a bad flowering year the price of konna is a small news story in Kerala. The Indian cuckoo heard through April is called the vishupakshi for the same reason.
Kaineettam, crackers and what is eaten
Vishukkaineettam is the day's transaction. Elders give money to children and to anyone dependent on the household, hand to hand. The amount conventionally ends in one, ₹11, ₹21, ₹101, ₹501, because a figure ending in one is read as a beginning that continues rather than a total that closes. The older custom was a rupee and a quarter. Taking kaineettam from a grandparent is many Malayalis' clearest childhood memory of the day, and grown children still queue up for it.
Firecrackers belong to Vishu, not to Diwali, in most of Kerala. Children start days early with small padakkam and the serious ones go off at dawn.
The food argues the same point that Ugadi makes with its pachadi: a year is not one flavour. Vishu kanji, rice cooked in coconut milk with spices, goes with a thoran and often with veppampoorasam, a bitter preparation of neem flower, and mampazhappulissery, a sour-sweet curry of ripe mango. Vishu katta, new rice ground and set with coconut milk, is eaten in squares with jaggery. Lunch is a sadya, smaller than Onam's.
The date, and why it sometimes moves
Vishu is fixed by the Sun, so it does not drift across weeks the way Ugadi does. It lands on 14 or 15 April.
The one-day wobble has a rule behind it. Malayalam almanacs divide the daylight into five parts and take the third boundary, aparahnam, as the cut-off. If the Sun crosses into Mesha before that point, that day is Medam 1. If it crosses later, Medam 1 begins at the next sunrise. Tamil almanacs use sunset as their cut-off instead. So in a year when the transit happens in the middle of the afternoon, Kerala keeps Vishu on 15 April while Tamil Nadu keeps Puthandu and Punjab keeps Vaisakhi on 14 April.
This causes real confusion in offices. Central holiday lists sometimes print Vishu and Vaisakhi on the same line. If you need the day Kerala is actually observing, check a Kerala panchangam or the state holiday list rather than the Delhi one.
Temples fill early. Sabarimala opens for the Meda Vishu puja and lets pilgrims in for Vishukkani darshan in the small hours of Medam 1, and Guruvayur and Sree Padmanabhaswamy in Thiruvananthapuram hold queues from before dawn. Ten days later comes Pathamudayam, the tenth sunrise of Medam, when lamps with ten wicks are lit in homes and temples.
Vishu travels with the community. Malayalis in Mahe, the Gulf, Singapore and the American and British diaspora keep the kani, and Tulu-speaking families in coastal Karnataka keep the same solar day as Bisu Parba.
What to write
Vishu Ashamsakal, Amme and Achcha. Thank you for every kani you set while I was still asleep. I have tried to do one here and it is not the same.
Vishu Ashamsakal! Hope the first thing you saw this morning was the lamp and not your phone.
Happy Vishu to you and your family. Wishing you a good year ahead, and a proper sadya at lunch.
Vishu Ashamsakal, mole. Your kaineettam is coming by transfer this year, and yes, it ends in one.
Vishu Ashamsakal, Ammamma. I still remember standing at the door with my eyes shut. Save the kaineettam, I am collecting.
Vishu Ashamsakal. No konna where you are, so send a photo of whatever yellow you managed. It counts.
Vishu Ashamsakal, and good luck with the new job. You could not have picked a better morning to start.
Vishu Ashamsakal. May this one open better than the last. Kanji, konna and quiet, in that order.
Do
- Send it early. Vishu is over by lunch for most families, and a wish at nine at night misses the point.
- Use Vishu Ashamsakal if you can. It is the phrase Malayalis use to each other.
- If you are staying with a Malayali family, let them lead you to the kani with your eyes covered. Peeking early is a small spoilsport act.
Avoid
- Don't call Vishu the Kerala harvest festival. That is Onam, four months later.
- Don't assume the date is 14 April. Kerala's almanac sometimes places Medam 1 on 15 April even when the rest of India is keeping the solar new year on the 14th.
- Don't write about equal day and night. The equinox moved away from this date centuries ago, and older readers will notice.
- Vishu Ashamsakal
- Vishu greetings, the standard Malayalam wish
- Vishukkani
- The arrangement seen first on waking, set the previous night
- Kanikkonna
- The Indian laburnum, Cassia fistula, in bloom around Vishu
- Uruli
- The wide bell-metal vessel the kani is arranged in
- Valkannadi
- The handled metal mirror of Aranmula placed inside the kani
- Vishukkaineettam
- Money given by elders to the young on Vishu morning
- Pathamudayam
- The tenth sunrise of Medam, ten days after Vishu
How to wish someone on Vishu
A Vishu wish is about what the year starts with, not about noise. Malayalis say Vishu Ashamsakal. The image to reach for is the kani itself: the lamp, the konna, the mirror in which you see your own face among the good things. Mention the kaineettam if you are writing to a child or a grandparent, the konna in bloom if your reader is away from Kerala, and keep it short. Vishu is a morning festival, so send it early.
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 Vishu in 2026 and 2027?
Vishu 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.
- 2026
- 2027
Frequently asked questions
When is Vishu in 2027?
Vishu 2027 falls on Thursday, 15 April 2027.
What goes into a Vishukkani?
A Vishukkani is arranged in a bell-metal uruli in front of a lit lamp and an image of Krishna, and usually holds raw rice, a golden cucumber, a split coconut, mango and jackfruit, betel leaves and arecanut, gold or coins, a new kasavu cloth, a handled metal mirror and a sprig of yellow konna flowers. It is set up the night before by an elder so that nobody else sees it until morning.
Why is Vishu sometimes on 14 April and sometimes on 15 April?
Vishu is Medam 1, the day the Sun enters Mesha, and Malayalam almanacs apply a cut-off called aparahnam, roughly three-fifths of the way through daylight. If the Sun crosses before that point the same day is Medam 1; if it crosses later, Medam 1 starts the next morning. Tamil almanacs use sunset instead, which is why Vishu occasionally falls a day after Puthandu and Vaisakhi.
How do you wish someone on Vishu in Malayalam?
Say "Vishu Ashamsakal", which means Vishu greetings. A warmer version is "Hridayam niranja Vishu Ashamsakal", heartfelt Vishu wishes. "Happy Vishu" is completely normal in offices and group chats.
What is Vishukkaineettam and how much should you give?
Vishukkaineettam is money handed by elders to children and dependants on Vishu morning, straight into the palm. The amount traditionally ends in the digit one, such as ₹11, ₹101 or ₹501, because a figure ending in one reads as a beginning rather than a closed total. The older form was a rupee and a quarter.
Is Vishu the same as Vaisakhi and Puthandu?
They are the same astronomical event, the Sun's entry into Mesha, kept differently. Punjab's Vaisakhi is a wheat-harvest festival and the anniversary of the founding of the Khalsa, Tamil Nadu's Puthandu is a new-year day with a tray of auspicious items and a temple visit, and Kerala's Vishu turns on the Vishukkani seen at dawn. The dates usually match, but Kerala's almanac can place Vishu a day later.
Which is the Malayalam new year, Vishu or Chingam 1?
Both have a claim. Vishu, on Medam 1 in April, is the older solar new year and is the one families actually mark with a ritual. Chingam 1, in mid-August, is the first day of the Kollam era calendar adopted in 825 CE and is the official start of the Malayalam year, but it passes with almost no ceremony.
Last verified by the Kehdoo team on .