Karka Saṅkrānti (Dakṣiṇāyana)

When it falls

The day the sidereal Sun enters Karka (Cancer), about 16 July every year. The sign entry, not the June solstice, is the tradition's marker.

The Phala almanac gives the exact day for your own city; the lunar and solar rules above are what it computes from.

The story

The year has two halves. From Makara Saṅkrānti the Sun travels north (Uttarāyaṇa) and the days lengthen; from Karka Saṅkrānti it turns south (Dakṣiṇāyana) and the nights begin to win. The texts call the northern half the day of the gods and the southern half their night.

The southern half is the season of the rains, of the monsoon retreat of monks, of the ancestors' fortnight, of Navarātri and Dīpāvali. It is given to inner work, austerity and worship rather than to beginnings; weddings and thread ceremonies wait for the Sun to turn back.

In Tamil Nadu the month that opens today is Āḍi, kept for the Goddess with pots of pongal cooked in the streets on Āḍi Perukku (the eighteenth day) when the rivers rise.

How the day is kept

• A bath and offerings to the Sun at dawn, with water poured from a copper vessel.
• Charity of umbrellas, footwear and grain, the goods the monsoon months need.
• Farmers of the south mark the transplanting of paddy; in Tamil homes the Āḍi month is for kolam patterns and visits to Amman temples.

More solar turning points