Karthigai (கார்த்திகை)

Karthigai (கார்த்திகை)

This eighth month in the Tamizh calendar is one of the darkest months as it is one during which it rains the most, the others being Purattasi and Aippasi Daytime is quite less in this month as it becomes dark by 5.30-6.00 pm during this month.

First day of Karthigai

Today is the first day of Karthigai.

The first day of Karthigai is well known for Iyappan. People planning to visit Sabarimala for Makara jothi, start their vratham on this day. Iyappan vratham starts with the wearing of tulasi mani maalai on this day and following the strict rules and regulations of this vratham. Iyappan temples are beautifully decorated and special pujas are done for the Lord on this day.

The other very old significance of the first day of Karthigai is Mudavanuku moksham  (முடவனுக்கு மோக்ஷம்) – the moksha of the lame man. The story behind this is that a lame man wanted to bathe in the Cauvery waters in Kumbakonam atleast on kadaimugam day (last day of Aippasi) as bathing in Kumbakonam Cauvery on all days of Aippasi is considered to give one moksham.
Even today this is followed and people throng the river on the kadaimugam day to ensure they atleast have a dip in the river on that day. By the time he reached Mayavaram (aka Mayiladuthurai), Aippasi ended and the month of Karthigai had begun. To fulfill the lame man’s wish, God blessed him saying that he will attain moksham even if he bathes in the Cauvery in Mayavaram.

Karthigai deepam(கார்த்திகை தீபம்)

The most important festival of Karthigai is Karthigai deepam, which falls on the full moon of the month of Karthigai. This year Karthigai deepam falls on 21^st November. Karthigai deepam is mainly celebrated in all Sivan temples with the most important being Thiruvannamalai Deepam. The main deepam being lit in Thiruvannamalai is a great sight and is always telecast on TV every year.  Lighting of the deepam takes place in all other Sivan temples also on a grand scale. At home, people light agal vilakku (lamps made of red clay) filled with oil and new cotton wick and place them decoratively near the front door as well as backyard. Lighting of the lamps in this month must have started mainly because, as mentioned above, this is one of the darkest months and lamps were lit to get rid of the darkness. As in everything else, this is being celebrated as a festival. In fact, a couple of lamps are kept at the entrances to homes in the evenings on all days of Karthigai in yonder days. Even nowadays many people follow this including our household. Whatever maybe the reason, it is a joy to see the rows of lamps on the people’s balconies on the day of Karthigai deepam.

Since Karthigai deepam comes quite close to Diwali, bursting of fire-crackers for Karthigai is also observed.

The sweets made for Karthigai are the Karthigai pori and adhirasam. Karthigai pori is a very healthy sweet as there is no deep frying or ghee used in it.

Karthigai Amavasya

Karthigai amavasya is celebrated as Sridara Aiyyavaal urchavam  (ஸ்ரீதர அய்யவாள் உற்சவம்) in  Thiruvisalur The legend behind this is that Sridhara aiyyavaal on the day of his mother’s ceremony, went to have bath in the river nearby to get ready for the ritual. On his way back, he met a few untouchables begging for food. Moved by their condition,  Aiyyavaal brought them home and fed them with the food made for the ceremony. Immediately the agraharam where he lived  disowned him and he could not get any Vadyar (priest) to do the ceremonies for him. He prayed to God and suddenly three men came out of nowhere and offered to do the ceremonies and have lunch too. Immediately after lunch, the men vanished and  Aiyyavaal understood that it must have been the Mumoorthigal – Brahma, Vishnu, Sivan. Despite this, the he was advised to go to Varanasi and bathe in the River Ganga for the sin of feeding the untouchables. He again prayed to God as he was too old to travel all the way to Varanasi. God blessed him that on Karthigai amavasya day, River Ganga will flow from the well behind his house. Ganga overflowed in his well on this day. To this day Ganga is said to have kept her promise and flows in that well and it is considered sacred to have bath from the waters of that well on Karthigai amavasya day. This day is being celebrated as Sridhara Aiyyavaal urchavam even today. This urchavam is celebrated for ten days with the Amavasya day being the concluding day. This year Aiyyavaal urchavam /  Amavasya falls on 5^th December. Aiyyavaal who lived about three hundred years ago is said to be one of the gurus of the nama japa sampardaya.

Aippasi (ஐப்பசி)

Aippasi (ஐப்பசி)


Aippasi is seventh month in the Tamizh calendar from October 16 – November 16. This happens to be the most festive month as the biggest festival in India – Diwali falls in this month.

Pournami

Aippasi pournami is Annabishekam in all Sivan temples. The Siva lingam is covered with cooked rice and also decorated with vegetables and fruits around. This is basically a thanksgiving to the Lord for providing us with Annam! It is a great sight to see the Lingam fully covered with white cooked rice with the fruits and vegetables lending colour! Witnessing Annabishekam is said to relieve one from the cycles of birth.

I have heard that it is a magnificient sight to see the annabishekham at the Brihadeewarar temple in Thanjavur as the Lingam is really huge there.

This year Aippasi Pournami was on 22 October

Diwali

This great festival falls on Aippasi Amavasya

This festival of lights is said to have been started with the celebration of Rama’s return to Ayodya after vanavasam. Another story is that when Krishna defeated Narakasura, this Asuran requested Krishna that his death be celebrated as festival of lights. Whatever the story behind may be, this is one festival which is not regional but celebrated all over our country.

When we were kids, our priority was crackers, new clothes and then sweets in that order!

These days crackers have the least priority. What with the pollution it causes and the child labour involved in making the crackers, it is good that nowadays children give less importance to this, but I personally cannot imagine a Diwali without crackers! When we were kids, I remember that Appa used to make a detailed list of crackers keeping every family member’s interest in mind (and ofcourse the budget!). Bursting the crackers was a pucca family thing with right from my grandfather participating in it. I am happy that even in 2008, my Thatha at 95 years of age enthusiastically accepted my request and burst some electric crackers along with my Chittappa (73 years) and Appa (75 years)!

Nowadays Diwali means shopping! The offers given on every item right from clothes, household applicances to jewellery is incredible but good fun and of real use if you have a need, else it is just that you go to the shop planning to spend a few thousands and end up spending double or treble the amount thanks to the various offers!

The sweets! The variety available is unimaginable! And that too all the packs decorated beautifully that you don’t have the heart to open the packaging!

There are so many types available in the market that people prefer it to buy from the shops and gift to others rather than distributing home made stuff. But still sweets – at least two or three varieties with a couple of different savouries are made at home.

Diwali day starts with oil bath. Traditionally, one is not supposed to take oil bath on amavasya day but Diwali is an exception. This is why oil bath is taken before sunrise as this means that day has not officially begun! The Holy Ganga water is said to flow through our water taps and hence the term “ganga snanam” for the bath on Diwali day.

After the oil bath, new clothes are a must be it a grand or a simple one!

In our place, the first thing you have to pop into your mouth right after brushing is diwali marunthu – my mother makes this at home with so many medicinal ingredients bought from naatu marunthu kadai. Nowadays, readymade marunthu is available in naatu marunthu kadai. This is supposed to help our digestive system as we really give it a lot of work even from few days before Diwali! We give our system further work with a heavy feast for lunch!

Again these days, Diwali means TV programme for many. All the channels compete with telecast of patti mandram and new movies and Diwali celebration of one star or the other. This has resulted in less interaction with relatives on this day as TV takes the prime place!

Diwali is on 05 November this year

Kanda Sashti

Right after Diwali Kanda Sashti festival starts. It starts on the first day after Diwali amavasya and ends on the sixth day – Sashti

Lord Muruga fought with Soorapadman on these six days and defeated him on Sashti.

This is celebrated in a grand scale in all Murugan temples and the celebration at Tiruchendur is supposed to be the best. Last year, I had the opportunity to witness the Soorasamharam at Vadapalani temple, thanks to my sister Jayashree.

Kanda Sashti is from 06 November to 11 November 2010.

Aippasi Sadhayam

The greatest Tamizh King – Raja Raja chozhan was born on Aippasi Sadhayam and his birthday is celebrated on this day even now. This year I hope the celebration will be even more what with the completion of 1000 years of the Brihadeeswara temple built by this great King.

Aippasi sadhayam falls on 15 November 2010

Kadaimugam

The last day of Aippasi is said to be Kadaimugam. Bathing in river Cauvery on this day is said to be very sacred. This is on 16 November this year.

Aadi Thiruvizha

Aadi is the fourth month in the Tamil calendar. Usually weddings do not take place in this month, the real reason behind this is that if a woman conceives in this month, the baby will be born in the Tamil month of Chithirai (April 14 – May 14), the hottest period in Tamil Nadu. Hence the month of Aadi was dedicated to worship of Goddess – Amman.

It is a great sight to see all Amman temples decorated this month with various functions and rituals like pongal, maavilakku and theemidhi taking place widely.

All the Fridays of this month are even more auspicious with special poojas and alangarams to the Goddess in all the temples in Tamil Nadu.

Varalakshmi Vratham, a special pooja by the ladies for the welfare of their husband falls on one of the Fridays of Aadi.

The 18th day of Aadi is called Aadi perukku with fresh water flow into river Cauvery. It is a great celebration in the regions where Cauvery flows, but even people in other towns and cities follow the thanksgiving to Cauvery with special prayers and grand feast with different mixed rice like jaggery rice, tamarind rice, coconut rice, lemon rice, aviyal and vadaam.

Aadi Krithigai is special for Lord Murugan and special prayers including kavadi take place in all Murugan temples not only in India, but even in countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka.

Aadi Pooram is special for Aandal and valaikaapu takes place in Amman temples on this day.

Aadi Amavasya is important and even people who do not follow the rituals to be done on other Amavasyas, do it on this day.

During the month of Aadi, the clothes shops, especially the ones selling pattu saris saw a sharp drop in their sales as the wedding season begins in full swing only in Aavani, the month after Aadi. But this is an old story now. About 8 years ago these shops started a 50% discount sale in the month of Aadi. This developed so well that nowadays, the shops seem to be more crowded in the month of Aadi than the others.

This is applicable not only to clothes and jewellery

but also electronics

and even footwear


                                  

With the result Aadi is not only Bhakti Thiruvizha but also a Shopping Thiruvizha in Tamil Nadu!

Waterbodies of India I

Being a Chennaite, I love our Marina Beach. In fact when we were young, visit to the Beach was our favourite outing. http://sundarivenkatraman.blogspot.com/2009/07/nostalgia-evening-in-marina-beach.html Amma and Paati used to take us all to the Beach from our house in Nungambakkam and Appa would join us there straight from office. The standard meeting place was at the Kannagi statue. At first I was very scared by the huge sheets of waves. I remember my eldest sister Sujatha used to lift me and every time a wave came, she used to bend down and dip my feet in the water. She is 10 years elder to me and must have been about 14-15 years when she did that. I am not sure if I would have had the courage to do such a thing at her age. Thank you Sujatha for introducing me to the beach! Slowly I came to know water was fun and fell in love with it.

My first river bath was in the Thungabhadra. I may have had the chance to have a dip in Cauvery earlier than that, but I do not remember it. About Thungabhadra, we had been to Adoni to my mother’s uncle’s (Kittappa Chittappa) place for summer holidays and went to Mantralayam from there. I actually do not remember the temple now, but I do remember bathing in the river very well. I was about six years old. My parents just made me stand in chest deep water. Appa joked that he could feel a few fishes biting him. I started jumping in the water and wanted to get out immediately as though the small fishes were going to eat me whole!

In 1985, we all went to Patna for my uncle’s (SV Prasad) wedding. Ganga flowing in Patna is called Akanda Ganga as she runs in a very wide path there. It was very nice and pleasant to have a bath here and I realised that I liked river bathing too. After the wedding, our family alone proceeded to Allahabad. Here again we bathed in the Triveni Sangamam. Here, we could very clearly see the colour difference where the Ganga and Yamuna met. River Saraswathi is supposed to come from underneath and invisible. This trip was really enjoyable and I would like to make a separate blog on this North India trip. Our next stop was at Varanasi where we bathed in the Ganga on 2-3 days. In spite of so much of junk being thrown in, the river remains pure!

After Varanasi, Appa took us all to Rameswaram. On the way to Rameswaram, we went to Thiruchendur. What a sea it was! We went in for a dip but many of us fell into the water as the sea was very rough, but it was great fun.

At Rameswaram, the sea is very calm, almost like backwaters and only during high tide, it is a little wavy. So it was almost like bathing in a river. We all enjoyed it so much! I am very happy to have visited Rameswaram four times so far. The last trip was with my husband, mother-in-law, brothers-in-law and their families and was real fun. Twice we went to the sea for bathing and both the times it was at high tide and very wavy.

Dhanushkodi – what a beautiful place! Out of the four visits to Rameswaram so far, I have been to Dhanushkodi thrice. Each time this place looked different. My second visit was after the tsunami and I could see that the sea had come way inside eating into the shore. At Dhanushkodi we could see the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean joining at a point. During the latest trip, we performed some pujas there and had the opportunity to stay for a longer period. While the men were busy with the puja, I was very happily walking on the beach collecting shells. The kids and I were very keen to go as much as possible into the sea and at one point we all just sat inside the sea and enjoyed the waves crashing on us. As it was morning, the weather was mildly sunny and the water was quite cool. I really love the sea here and would like to visit again.

On my third trip to Rameswaram which was a package trip with about 100 odd people, we all went to Devipattinam. I have heard about this place first in Kalki’s Alaiosai and then from my sister Sujatha. The Navagraham here is said to have been worshipped by Lord Rama on his way to Lanka. The uniqueness of this Navagraham is that during high tide, they are completely submerged in the water and only during low tide, can we do puja or pradakshinam. After having bath in the sea here, we did the perambulations around the Navagraham in waist-deep water.

Though Kumbakonam is my hometown, I have bathed in the Cauvery only once during my visit to Nallur with Appa.

Hope to have a bath in Cauvery once again and also visit the other Holy Rivers of India!