Skanda Sashti 2027: Soorasamharam on Thursday 4 November

Skanda Sashti 2027, spelled Kandha or Kanda Sashti in Tamil Nadu (கந்த சஷ்டி), reaches its Soorasamharam evening on Thursday 4 November. The six-day vratam leading up to it begins on Saturday 30 October, the morning after Diwali. This page reads each of those days at sunrise in New Delhi and in eight southern cities, and reads the closing evening at sunset as well. Every check points to the same dates, with hours to spare.

From the Diwali New Moon to the Sixth Morning

On Friday 29 October, the date of Diwali 2027, the sun rises at 06:30 in New Delhi with the Amavasya still running. The new moon arrives at 19:06 that evening, after the 17:38 sunset, and the bright fortnight opens with it. The first sunrise of the new fortnight is therefore 30 October, and the count goes:

1. Saturday 30 October: Shukla Pratipada, sunrise 06:31
2. Sunday 31 October: Shukla Dwitiya, sunrise 06:32
3. Monday 1 November: Shukla Tritiya, sunrise 06:32
4. Tuesday 2 November: Shukla Chaturthi, sunrise 06:33
5. Wednesday 3 November: Shukla Panchami, sunrise 06:34
6. Thursday 4 November: Shukla Shashthi, sunrise 06:34; Soorasamharam in the evening

The two days that open the vratam are busy ones in the north too. The festival table puts Govardhan Puja 2027 on that Saturday and Bhai Dooj 2027 on Sunday 31 October, the latter dated by the tithi at madhyahna. So in 2027 the first two mornings of the vratam overlap the close of the Diwali festivities.

Every Tithi Turns Over Late in the Day

From the new moon to the close of the Shashthi, the week holds seven tithi changeovers, and each one falls between 17:13 and 21:38 on the clock, nowhere near the morning. Across all nine cities on this page, the closest any changeover comes to a local sunrise is 8 h 25 min. A tithi that ends close to dawn is what makes neighbouring towns disagree about which day it belongs to. In 2027 that never happens in this fortnight, and the six mornings are the same six dates from Delhi to Thiruvananthapuram.

The Shashthi at Dawn and at Dusk

The Shukla Shashthi opens at 19:32 on Wednesday 3 November and closes at 21:38 on Thursday 4 November. In New Delhi the sun sets at 17:34 on 3 November, so that day’s daylight and its sunset belong wholly to the Panchami. On 4 November the Shashthi is already current at the 06:34 sunrise, and the tithi outlasts the 17:34 sunset by 4 h 04 min.

Murugan temples by their custom stage Soorasamharam at dusk, so the evening reading matters as much as the morning one. Southern sunsets in early November come later than Delhi’s, which eats into the evening margin, and the table below gives each city its own sun:

Kochi has the latest sunset of the southern group and so the thinnest evening margin, and even there the Shashthi has 3 h 38 min left. On the night before, the tithi begins more than an hour after sunset in every city listed, and by the 4 November sunrise it is more than ten hours old everywhere. Some almanacs also ask whether the Panchami and the Shashthi meet within the daylight of a single day. In 2027 they do not, in any of these cities: the handover from one to the other comes after dark on 3 November. The panchang tool shows figures for New Delhi only; the city panchang pages carry sunrise and sunset for other cities through 2026 and 2027.

One Tithi, Two Festivals

The instants above are the ones the site’s festival table files under Chhath 2027. That row is the Kartika Shukla Shashthi, dated by the tithi at pradosh, and it lands on Thursday 4 November, the same day as Soorasamharam. On that evening the Chhath vratis of Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh make their arghya to the setting sun, while Murugan temples in the Tamil country enact the battle with Surapadman. The two share a lunar date and nothing else: different stories, different rites, different regions. The November 2027 vrat and tyohar list sets the four Chhath days out in order.

Thirukalyanam on Friday

Temple custom at Tiruchendur, followed by many other Murugan shrines, holds Thirukalyanam, the wedding of Murugan and Deivanai, on the day after Soorasamharam. In 2027 that is Friday 5 November. The Shukla Saptami has taken over by every sunrise on the list (New Delhi: 06:35), since the Shashthi ended at 21:38 the night before, so the wedding day falls on the tithi that follows, as the custom orders it.

Surapadman in the Kanda Puranam

The account behind the vratam comes from the Skanda Purana in Sanskrit and, for most Tamil readers, from Kachiyappa Sivachariyar’s Kanda Puranam. As the Kanda Puranam tells it, the asura Surapadman and his brothers have the devas in their power, and Murugan, the son of Shiva, leads the war against them until Surapadman is defeated; the Tamil poem has the vanquished asura become the peacock Murugan rides and the cockerel on his flag. The Tiruchendur temple re-enacts that last battle on its seashore each year, and its tradition locates the war there.

Households keep the six days in many ways: one meal a day, fruit and milk only, or a stricter fast, often with the Kanda Sashti Kavacham recited each day. The vratam is presented within the tradition as devotion, and this page makes no claim about what keeping it does for anyone. Anyone with a medical condition, anyone pregnant, and anyone on regular medication should talk to a doctor before a fast of several days.

Aippasi and the Sun’s Sign

Tamil calendars name their solar months by the Sun’s sidereal sign, and Aippasi is the name for the month of the Sun in Libra. By the site’s ingress table the Sun enters Libra more than a week before 30 October and does not leave it until more than a week after 5 November, so the whole vratam and Thirukalyanam lie well inside Aippasi on that reading. Where a Tamil almanac places the first and last day of the month depends on its own conventions, and this page gives no date for either.

Skanda Sashti 2027 at a Glance

• Vratam begins: Saturday 30 October, Shukla Pratipada at sunrise
• Soorasamharam: Thursday 4 November, evening
• Shukla Shashthi: 19:32 on 3 November to 21:38 on 4 November
• New Delhi sunrise and sunset, 4 November: 06:34 and 17:34
• Thirukalyanam: Friday 5 November, Shukla Saptami at sunrise
• Chhath (same tithi): Thursday 4 November

For the 2026 dates, see Skanda Sashti 2026; the Chhath Puja 2026 page covers the other festival of this Shashthi. The 2027 festival calendar and the festival pages carry the rest of the year. In Hindi: स्कंद षष्ठी 2027: सूरसंहारम गुरुवार 4 नवम्बर को.