Masa 10 of 12
Pushyaపుష్యం
The harvest month — Makara Sankranti falls in it, and the sun turns north.
- Named for
- Pushya
- Ritu
- Hemanta (pre-winter)
- Sun crosses
- Dhanus into Makara
- Roughly
- December-January
About Pushya
Pushya carries the harvest and the turn of the sun. Makara Sankranti falls within it — a solar event, so it holds roughly the same Gregorian date each year while the lunar month around it drifts — and with it uttarayana begins and the wedding calendar reopens after Dhanurmasam. The month is named for the nakshatra held to be the most auspicious of the twenty-seven, and Guru Pushya yoga, when Pushya falls on a Thursday, is particularly sought within it.
Festivals and observances
- Makara Sankranti, Pongal, Lohri, Magh Bihu — solar, mid-January
- Bhogi, Kanuma and Mukkanuma — the Telugu Sankranti days
- Putrada Ekadashi — shukla ekadashi
- Pushya Purnima — Pushya purnima
- Uttarayana begins — at Makara Sankranti
How the month gets its name
The month is named for the nakshatra in which its full moon falls. Because a lunar month is about 29.5 days and the moon returns to the same nakshatra in about 27.3, the match is close rather than exact — the full moon lands in the named nakshatra most months and in a neighbouring one occasionally. The name does not change when it does; the rule fixed the names long ago and they stay put.
Everything here follows the amanta convention used across the Telugu country and the south, in which the month ends at the new moon. In the purnimanta reckoning of the north the month ends at the full moon instead, so every waning-fortnight day carries the following month's name. The days are identical; only the label differs.