Months in Punjabi: Modern Names and the Desi Calendar

The months in Punjabi come in two sets: the everyday Gregorian names — ਜਨਵਰੀ (janvari), ਫਰਵਰੀ (farvari), ਮਾਰਚ (march), and so on — and the traditional desi months, from ਚੇਤ (chet) to ਫੱਗਣ (phaggan), that still set the rhythm of festivals, folk songs, and farming in Punjab. This guide gives you both calendars with Gurmukhi spellings, easy pronunciation, and the cultural moments that make each month memorable.

If you are still getting comfortable with the script, our Gurmukhi alphabet guide pairs well with this page — but the transliterations below will carry you the whole way.

What are the 12 months in Punjabi?

For dates on documents, birthdays, appointments, and the news, modern Punjabi simply uses the Gregorian calendar with Punjabi-flavoured pronunciation. If you know the English months, you are ninety percent of the way there:

English month	Punjabi (Gurmukhi)	Transliteration
January	ਜਨਵਰੀ	janvari
February	ਫਰਵਰੀ	farvari
March	ਮਾਰਚ	march
April	ਅਪ੍ਰੈਲ	aprail
May	ਮਈ	mayi
June	ਜੂਨ	joon
July	ਜੁਲਾਈ	julai
August	ਅਗਸਤ	agast
September	ਸਤੰਬਰ	satambar
October	ਅਕਤੂਬਰ	aktoobar
November	ਨਵੰਬਰ	navambar
December	ਦਸੰਬਰ	dasambar

These are loanwords, so spellings can wobble slightly from newspaper to newspaper, but the forms above are the ones you will meet most often.

What are the traditional desi Punjabi months?

Older and closer to the land is the desi calendar — the twelve months used in the Nanakshahi calendar, in Gurbani, in folk poetry like the barah maah (song of the twelve months), and in every conversation about harvests and weddings in rural Punjab. Each desi month starts around the middle of a Gregorian month, because the year begins with ਚੇਤ (chet) in mid-March:

Desi month (Gurmukhi)	Transliteration	Approximate Gregorian span
ਚੇਤ	chet	mid-March to mid-April
ਵਿਸਾਖ	visakh	mid-April to mid-May
ਜੇਠ	jeth	mid-May to mid-June
ਹਾੜ੍ਹ	haarh	mid-June to mid-July
ਸਾਉਣ	saun	mid-July to mid-August
ਭਾਦੋਂ	bhadon	mid-August to mid-September
ਅੱਸੂ	assu	mid-September to mid-October
ਕੱਤਕ	kattak	mid-October to mid-November
ਮੱਘਰ	magghar	mid-November to mid-December
ਪੋਹ	poh	mid-December to mid-January
ਮਾਘ	maagh	mid-January to mid-February
ਫੱਗਣ	phaggan	mid-February to mid-March

The desi months are not trivia — they are living vocabulary. Punjabi speakers describe peak summer heat as ਜੇਠ-ਹਾੜ੍ਹ ਦੀ ਗਰਮੀ (jeth-haarh di garmi) and biting winter cold as ਪੋਹ ਦੀ ਠੰਢ (poh di thandd), the way English speakers say “the dog days” or “the dead of winter”.

Which festivals fall in which desi month?

The desi calendar is easiest to remember through the festivals and seasons attached to it:

• ਵਿਸਾਖ (visakh) — Vaisakhi. The first day of visakh, in mid-April, is Vaisakhi: the wheat harvest festival of Punjab and the day the Khalsa was founded in 1699. It is the biggest date on the Punjabi calendar, and the month is named for it.
• ਸਾਉਣ (saun) — the monsoon month. When the rains arrive in saun, Punjab celebrates: the festival of Teeyan, swings hung from trees, giddha, and a whole genre of folk songs about saun’s clouds. If a Punjabi song mentions a month, it is very often this one.
• ਪੋਹ to ਮਾਘ (poh to maagh) — Lohri and Maghi. Lohri, the bonfire festival, burns on the last night of poh in mid-January, marking the turn away from the deepest winter. The next morning is the first of maagh, celebrated as Maghi.
• ਫੱਗਣ (phaggan) — basant on the way. As phaggan warms into spring, Punjab enters the basant (spring) season of yellow mustard fields and kite flying, with the festival of Hola Mohalla arriving as phaggan turns to chet.

Anchor each month to its festival and the whole calendar arranges itself around Vaisakhi, the monsoon, and the Lohri bonfire.

Which words do you need to talk about months?

Two core words unlock the topic: ਮਹੀਨਾ (mahina — month) and ਸਾਲ (saal — year). With those, plus the little word ਵਿੱਚ (vich — in), you can build most of what daily life requires:

• ਸਾਲ ਵਿੱਚ ਬਾਰਾਂ ਮਹੀਨੇ ਹੁੰਦੇ ਹਨ। (saal vich baaraan mahine hunde han) — There are twelve months in a year.
• ਮੇਰਾ ਜਨਮਦਿਨ ਮਈ ਵਿੱਚ ਹੈ। (mera janamdin mayi vich hai) — My birthday is in May.
• ਵਿਸਾਖੀ ਅਪ੍ਰੈਲ ਵਿੱਚ ਆਉਂਦੀ ਹੈ। (visakhi aprail vich aundi hai) — Vaisakhi comes in April.
• ਪੋਹ ਦਾ ਮਹੀਨਾ ਬਹੁਤ ਠੰਢਾ ਹੁੰਦਾ ਹੈ। (poh da mahina bahut thandda hunda hai) — The month of poh is very cold.
• ਅਗਲੇ ਮਹੀਨੇ ਮਿਲਾਂਗੇ। (agle mahine milaange) — We will meet next month.

Saying full dates also needs numbers — ਪੰਦਰਾਂ ਅਗਸਤ (pandraan agast — the fifteenth of August) — so keep Punjabi numbers 1 to 100 handy, and our guide to the days of the week in Punjabi completes the calendar set. From there, the months slot straight into everyday phrases about plans, weather, and birthdays, and the Learn Punjabi hub maps out the rest of the beginner journey.

Which set of months should a learner focus on first?

Start with the Gregorian set — it is nearly free if you speak English, and it is what you need for real-world dates, tickets, and appointments. Then learn the desi months in pairs of seasons rather than as a list of twelve: jeth-haarh is high summer, saun-bhadon is the monsoon, poh-maagh is deep winter, phaggan-chet is spring. Four seasonal pairs plus Vaisakhi’s month of visakh, and the calendar stops being a memorisation task and becomes a picture of the Punjabi year. That cultural layer is exactly what makes the desi months worth learning: they appear constantly in Gurbani, in folk songs, and in the way grandparents talk about the weather.

Quick answers about the months in Punjabi

What are the months in Punjabi?

Modern Punjabi uses the Gregorian months: ਜਨਵਰੀ (janvari), ਫਰਵਰੀ (farvari), ਮਾਰਚ (march), ਅਪ੍ਰੈਲ (aprail), ਮਈ (mayi), ਜੂਨ (joon), ਜੁਲਾਈ (julai), ਅਗਸਤ (agast), ਸਤੰਬਰ (satambar), ਅਕਤੂਬਰ (aktoobar), ਨਵੰਬਰ (navambar), ਦਸੰਬਰ (dasambar).

What are the desi Punjabi months?

The twelve desi months are ਚੇਤ (chet), ਵਿਸਾਖ (visakh), ਜੇਠ (jeth), ਹਾੜ੍ਹ (haarh), ਸਾਉਣ (saun), ਭਾਦੋਂ (bhadon), ਅੱਸੂ (assu), ਕੱਤਕ (kattak), ਮੱਘਰ (magghar), ਪੋਹ (poh), ਮਾਘ (maagh), and ਫੱਗਣ (phaggan), each beginning around the middle of a Gregorian month, with the year starting at chet in mid-March.

Which desi month does Vaisakhi fall in?

Vaisakhi falls on the first day of ਵਿਸਾਖ (visakh), in mid-April — usually April 13 or 14. It celebrates the wheat harvest and the founding of the Khalsa in 1699.

If you want a printable version of both calendars, our free Punjabi guides have charts you can pin above your desk.

Start today

Knowing the months on paper is step one; hearing and saying them is what makes them stick. The PunjabiCharm app teaches dates, seasons, and everyday conversation with native audio, spaced repetition, and bite-size lessons built for the diaspora — it has 500,000+ downloads and a 4.6-star rating across 4,000+ reviews. Say your first ਮੇਰਾ ਜਨਮਦਿਨ … ਵਿੱਚ ਹੈ out loud today.