Sharad Purnima 2027
14 October 2027

Sharad Purnima is Ashwin Purnima, the full moon that follows Navratri and Dussehra. Tradition holds that on this one night of the year the moon is full with all sixteen kalas (phases), and that its light carries amrit. That is why families make kheer and keep it in the moonlight through the night, eating it the next morning as prasad. Valmiki Jayanti also falls on this Purnima.

The night is also Kojagara, or Kojagiri. Tradition says Lakshmi goes about on this night asking ko jagarti, who is awake, and families keep a night puja to her and stay up in vigil. In Braj it is the night of the Raas, when, as the Bhagavata Purana tells it, Krishna danced with the gopis under the autumn moon.

• Milk, rice, sugar and dry fruits for kheer
• A silver, steel or clay bowl for the kheer
• A thin muslin cloth to cover it
• Lota of water for arghya
• White flowers and akshat
• Image of Lakshmi
• Diya and ghee
• Roli and kalava
• Sweets and makhana for bhog

Source: Bhagavata Purana, Book 10, the Raas Panchadhyayi; tradition identifies the night as Sharad Purnima

Seeing the beauty of the autumn nights, Krishna resolved to keep the promise he had once made to the gopis. On one such night, when the jasmine was in bloom and the full moon rose over Vrindavan, he played his flute. The gopis heard it and left whatever they were doing, milking, cooking or serving their families, and went to him in the forest.

Krishna first told them to go back to their homes and families. They answered that they could not; their hearts had already been given to him. He then played with them in the forest, but when they grew proud of having him to themselves, he vanished.

The gopis searched the forest for him, asking the trees and creepers if they had seen him, and sang of their longing, the song known as the Gopi Geet. Krishna appeared among them again, and the Raas began: in the circle of the dance he was beside each gopi at once.

What to do

• Cover the kheer with a thin cloth before setting it out, so the moonlight reaches it but dust and insects do not.
• Offer arghya to Chandra once the moon is up, since the night’s puja greets the full moon itself.
• If you keep Kojagara, light a diya for Lakshmi and keep it burning while the family is awake, as the vigil is the heart of the night.

What to avoid

• Families keeping Kojagara avoid sleeping early, since the Lakshmi puja is a night vigil.
• Onion, garlic and meat are usually kept out of the day’s food, so the kheer and bhog stay sattvik.

The night goes by many names: Kojagara or Kojagiri Purnima in the north and Maharashtra, where families share masala milk after the puja; Kojagari Lakshmi Puja in Bengal; Kumar Purnima in Odisha, when unmarried girls worship the moon; Sharad Poonam in Gujarat, with Garba and doodh-pauva; and Raas Purnima in Braj.

A Purnima falls in the bright half, which has the same month name in the Amanta and Purnimanta calendars (in Purnimanta it closes the month, in Amanta it falls mid-month), so both call this Ashwin Purnima. The date can still differ: the night puja is kept on the night the Purnima holds at midnight, while the Purnima for bathing and daan is read at sunrise, so in some years the two fall on consecutive days, and each city reads them by its own clock and sunrise.