Sakat Chauth 2027

About Sakat Chauth

Sakat Chauth, also called Tilkut Chauth or Sankat Chauth, is the day mothers in north India fast for their children and worship Ganesha and Sakat Mata. It falls on Magha Krishna Chaturthi, the fourth day after the full moon of Magha, and in 2027 it is on Monday, 25 January 2027. The fast ends at night, after an offering of water to the moon, with tilkut made of sesame and jaggery.

On Sakat Chauth evening, kitchens across Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh smell of roasted sesame. The sesame is pounded with jaggery into tilkut, the sweet that gives the day its other name, Tilkut Chauth. The mother of the house has usually not eaten since morning. She waits for the moon.

Whom the fast is for

Sakat Chauth is a vrat for children. Mothers keep it for the long life and safety of their children, and in many families it is still spoken of as a fast for sons, as the old stories describe. Many women keep it nirjala, without even water, from sunrise until the moon is up. Others take water or fruit, depending on health and family custom.

Two deities are worshipped. Ganesha, the remover of obstacles, is honoured as on every Sankashti Chaturthi, often as a small lump of clay set on a wooden plank. Sakat Mata, a protective mother goddess, is especially important in Rajasthan, where her best-known temple stands in Sakat village in Alwar district, about 60 km from Alwar and 150 km from Jaipur. The word sakat is linked to sankat, trouble, and the day is also called Sankat Chauth: the fourth day that wards off trouble.

How the date is set

Sakat Chauth falls on Krishna Chaturthi, the fourth day of the waning moon, in the month of Magha by the purnimanta calendar used in the north, where months end on the full moon. In the amanta calendar of Maharashtra, Gujarat and the south, the same day belongs to Paush, and it is kept there as Lambodara Sankashti Chaturthi.

Because the fast ends at moonrise, the rule is to pick the day on which the Chaturthi tithi is running when the moon rises. That usually lands in January, sometimes early February. Moonrise comes well after dark, usually between about 8.30 and 9.45 pm in north India, and the exact minute differs by city, so families check a local panchang. When the day falls on a Tuesday, as it did in 2026, it is called Angaraki Chaturthi and is thought especially auspicious.

The vrat katha

Women hear or read a katha before breaking the fast. Two stories are told most often.

In the first, as tradition tells it, a potter's pots would not bake in his kiln. The king's priest advised that a child be placed in the kiln each time it was fired, and families had to give up a child in turn. When the turn came to an old woman's only son, it was Sakat Chauth. She gave him a betel nut and a bundle of durva grass from her Sakat puja and told him to sit in the kiln and call on the goddess. The kiln fired in a single night, and her son came out unhurt, with the children taken before him alive again. The town began to keep the fast from that day.

In the second, a poor woman who kept every Sankashti fast was visited at night by Ganesha, who ate the plain bathua greens she had left and turned her hut's corners to gold by morning. Her richer sister-in-law tried to force the same blessing and was punished until she shared her wealth fairly. The moral is about sincere devotion, not ritual for show.

What happens at home

1. Fast from sunriseMost mothers fast all day; many go without water.
2. Make tilkutSesame is roasted and pounded with jaggery. In many homes the tilkut is heaped into a small mound called a pahar, and in some it is shaped into a little goat, the til ka bakra, which a child of the house "cuts" after the puja before it is shared as prasad.
3. Evening pujaGanesha and Sakat Mata are worshipped with durva grass, tilkut and laddoos of sesame and jaggery.
4. Hear the kathaThe family sits for the vrat katha, read from a booklet or told by an elder.
5. Arghya to the moonOnce the moon is up, the mother offers water from a lota, sometimes with raw milk and flowers, then bows to Ganesha.
6. Break the fastShe eats tilkut first, then a simple meal. Offerings such as sugarcane, sweet potato, guava and ghee may be covered with a basket overnight and opened by a son the next morning.

The food changes by region. In Rajasthan, sweet potato is a common offering. In Baghelkhand in Madhya Pradesh, the day is not complete without kaachi, a sweet made from singhara, the water chestnut. In households where a son was born or married that year, a daughter-in-law may make 13 sesame laddoos and give them to her mother-in-law as bayna, a gift of the festival.

This is the season of sesame across north India. Sakat Chauth falls within a few weeks of Makar Sankranti and Lohri, and the fast belongs to the same family as Karwa Chauth and Ahoi Ashtami, which also end with an offering to the night sky.

What to write

Wish the person who is fasting. A message during the day should be gentle and encouraging, and one after moonrise can be warmer and lighter. If you are not Hindu, a simple "Wishing you and your children a blessed Sakat Chauth" is respectful.

For the bigger Ganesha festival of the year, see Ganesh Chaturthi.

How to wish someone on Sakat Chauth

A good Sakat Chauth wish is for a mother who has gone without food, and often water, all day for her children. Wish her a smooth fast and a clear moon, thank her, and ask Ganesha and Sakat Mata to keep the children safe. Mention the tilkut. Keep it simple, and never tease someone about fasting or press food on them before moonrise.

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.

When is Sakat Chauth in each year?

Sakat Chauth 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