Sheetala Ashtami 2027
शीतला अष्टमीTuesday 30 March 2027 · in 150 days
Sheetala Ashtami, widely called Basoda, is the day families worship Sheetala Mata and eat food cooked the day before. No stove is lit, and the cold meal is shared as her prasad.
Pujas for Sheetala Ashtami, in order
Sheetala Ashtami 2027: date and timings
- Date
- Tuesday 30 March 2027
- Tithi
- Chaitra Krishna Ashtami
- Ashtami begins
- 5:12 PM, 29 March
- Ashtami ends
- 7:41 PM, 30 March
- Sunrise
- 6:14 AM
- Sunset
- 6:37 PM
Times for New Delhi (IST). Use the city button above for your own city.
Other years
Sheetala Ashtami 2026: date and timings
- Date
- Wednesday 11 March 2026
- Tithi
- Chaitra Krishna Ashtami
- Ashtami begins
- 1:55 AM, 11 March
- Ashtami ends
- 4:20 AM, 12 March
- Sunrise
- 6:35 AM
- Sunset
- 6:27 PM
How to observe
- On the day before, cook the food for the festival and finish the kitchen work.
- On Ashtami morning, bathe and worship Sheetala Mata at a temple or at home.
- Offer cool water, roli, rice, turmeric and a portion of the cold food.
- Eat the cold food together as prasad and keep the stove unlit for the day.
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Coming up after Sheetala Ashtami
About Sheetala Ashtami
Sheetala Mata is worshipped as a mother goddess of coolness, and many families pray to her for the good health of their children and household, especially as the weather turns warm. She is pictured riding a donkey, holding a broom, a pot of water and neem leaves. Her very name means the cool one, and the whole day is kept in that spirit: nothing hot is cooked, and the family eats food made the day before.
The festival falls on the eighth day of the dark half of Chaitra in the purnimanta calendar, about a week after Holi. It is kept mostly in North and West India: in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat. The name Basoda comes from basi, food kept from the day before. Some families keep the day on Saptami instead of Ashtami, and in parts of Gujarat a similar day, Sheetala Satam, is kept in the month of Shravan. Each household follows the day its elders kept.
Preparation starts the day before. Women cook puri, sweet rice, rabri, gulgule, pua, curd dishes and other foods that keep well overnight, then put the kitchen to rest. Early on Ashtami morning, after a bath, women go to the Sheetala Mata temple or worship at home, offering cool water, roli, rice, turmeric and a portion of the cold food, and the story of Sheetala Mata is heard. After the puja, the family eats the cold food together as prasad, and the stove stays unlit for the day. Many also share a portion of the food with others.
A practical note: since the food is cooked a day ahead, it helps to plan the dishes and how they are stored, especially in warm weather, so that everything stays fresh. The tithi decides the day, and families follow their own tradition about Saptami or Ashtami.