Pohਪੋਹ

Poh is the tenth month of the Nanakshahi calendar and the most solemn month of the Sikh year. In the depth of the Punjabi winter, in fog and frost, the Panth walks again through the events of December 1704: the leaving of Anandpur, the separation of Guru Gobind Singh Ji's family at the Sarsa river, the battle of Chamkaur, and the martyrdom of the four Sahibzade and of Mata Gujri Ji at Sirhind. Poh follows Magghar and is followed by Magh; all twelve months are gathered on the Desi Mahine page.

Poh and its dates

Poh has 30 days in the calendar's design, running from 14 December to 12 January. Nanakshahi 558 is one of the years in which the SGPC's published calendar adjusts the count: Poh began on Wednesday 16 December 2026 and, with 29 days, is the shortest month of that year, ending on 13 January 2027. The adjustment keeps the sangrands true to the sun after a long Sawan earlier in the year. Lohri is kept on the last night of Poh, the eve of the Magh sangrand, so in 558 the bonfires are lit on 13 January 2027.

The season in Punjab

Poh is deep winter. Fog is the month's signature: on many mornings it lies so thick over the fields that the sun is a pale disc until noon, and on the coldest nights frost whitens the grass and the mustard leaves, the tukhar of the old poems. The days are the shortest of the year. Villages draw in on themselves around hearths and stoves, cattle are kept warm and fed on stored fodder, and the young wheat waits in the cold for the longer light of Magh.

The farming cycle in Poh

The fields ask little in Poh. Wheat is spreading in the cold and mustard is coming into flower by the month's end, the first yellow showing along the field edges. Berseem and other fodder crops are cut through the month for the animals, and the kinnow harvest is at its peak in the orchards of the south-west. Farmers watch the frost more than the calendar: a hard frost can burn the potato and vegetable crops, while a mild, foggy Poh is counted good for the wheat. Most of the month's labour is care rather than sowing or reaping.

Festivals and days of remembrance in Poh

The published calendar reads Poh as a journey. On 3 Poh (18 December in 558) it marks the Sees Saskaar of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, the cremation of the ninth Guru's sacred head at Anandpur Sahib. On 7 Poh (22 December) comes the Parivar Vichhora, the separation of Guru Gobind Singh Ji's family in the flooded Sarsa. On 8 Poh (23 December) the elder Sahibzade, Baba Ajit Singh Ji and Baba Jujhar Singh Ji, attained shaheedi fighting at Chamkaur Sahib. On 13 Poh (28 December) the younger Sahibzade, Baba Zorawar Singh Ji and Baba Fateh Singh Ji, were martyred at Sirhind, and Mata Gujri Ji left this world in the cold tower there. Their memorial is Fatehgarh Sahib, where the Shaheedi Sabha held in the last days of Poh draws one of the largest gatherings of the Sikh year.

The Parkash Gurpurab of Guru Gobind Singh Ji belongs to this season too, though its day is counted differently: tradition ties it to the tithi Poh Sudi 7, and its exact placement has been debated for years. In the SGPC's published calendar for 558 it is observed on 2 Magh, 15 January 2027, just after Poh ends. The same calendar also marks the Shaheedi Divas of Bhai Kehar Singh Ji and Bhai Satwant Singh Ji on 22 Poh (6 January). And on the month's last night the mood lifts: Lohri bonfires are lit in courtyards and village commons across Punjab, with revri, peanuts and songs around the fire, as the longest nights begin to shorten.

Poh in the Barah Maha

Guru Arjan Dev Ji opens Poh with the cold itself: ਪੋਖਿ ਤੁਖਾਰੁ ਨ ਵਿਆਪਈ ਕੰਠਿ ਮਿਲਿਆ ਹਰਿ ਨਾਹੁ ੥ (In Poh, the frost does not touch the one whom the Husband Lord holds close in His embrace.) The mind pierced by the Lord's lotus feet, the stanza continues, cannot be touched by corruption, and joins the saints to sing the praises. Guru Nanak Dev Ji's Tukhari Poh begins in a frozen landscape, the frost falling and the sap drying in wood and grass, yet it ends in warmth: the bride who loves her Beloved savours His essence even in the cold, and sees the one Light dwelling in every heart, in every creature, born of egg, of womb, of sweat or of earth. For the month of remembrance, the two poems set the Panth's own balance: grief held inside a larger love.

Why is Poh called the month of shaheedi?

Because the defining events of December 1704 fall in Poh: the separation of the Guru's family at the Sarsa (7 Poh), the elder Sahibzade's martyrdom at Chamkaur (8 Poh), and the younger Sahibzade and Mata Gujri Ji's martyrdom at Sirhind (13 Poh), remembered at the Fatehgarh Sahib Shaheedi Sabha.

When is Lohri?

Lohri is kept on the last night of Poh, the eve of the Magh sangrand. In Nanakshahi 558 that is 13 January 2027.

How many days does Poh have?

Thirty in the calendar's design. In the SGPC's published calendar for Nanakshahi 558, Poh has 29 days, the shortest month of that year.