Also known as: Tamil Puthandu, Chithirai Thirunal, Varusha Pirappu, Chithirai Vishu · Observed: Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Sri Lanka and Tamil communities worldwide
Significance of Puthandu
Puthandu, also called Varusha Pirappu, is the first day of the Tamil solar year and of the month of Chithirai. Unlike lunar new years, it is tied to the Sun: the year begins when the Sun crosses into the sidereal sign of Mesha (Aries), which usually happens in the middle of April. The same astronomical moment begins the new year in Kerala, Punjab, Odisha, Bengal, Assam and Sri Lanka, as well as in Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia, which shows how widely the solar sidereal calendar once spread.
For Tamil families it is a day of fresh beginnings: houses are cleaned, new clothes are worn, and elders bless the young. The new year is one of the sixty named years of the cycle, and its name is announced through the reading of the panchangam.
Customs and Traditions
On the eve of Puthandu, many homes arrange a kanni, a tray of auspicious items such as mangoes, bananas, jackfruit, betel leaves, areca nuts, flowers, gold or silver jewellery, coins and a mirror, so that the first sight on waking is one of abundance. The doorway is decorated with mango leaves, and an elaborate kolam is drawn in rice flour, often with a lamp, kuthuvilakku, placed at its centre.
After an oil bath, the family worships at the home shrine and visits temples. Large temples hold special abhishekams, and in Madurai the Chithirai month begins a season of festivals. In the afternoon or evening, the panchangam for the new year is read aloud, either at the temple or by an elder at home, giving the year's planetary positions, rain forecasts and predictions.
The Puthandu Meal
The centrepiece of the festive lunch is maanga pachadi, a dish of raw mango cooked with jaggery, neem flowers, red chilli and mustard. Like the Ugadi pachadi further north, its sweet, sour, bitter and spicy tastes stand for the many flavours of life. A full meal is served on banana leaves, with vadai, payasam, sambar, rasam, kootu and poriyal. In some homes, a dish of neem flower rasam, veppampoo rasam, is also made.
How the Date Is Determined
Puthandu follows the solar calendar. It is the first day of Chithirai, the month that begins when the Sun enters sidereal Mesha (the Mesha Sankranti). Tamil almanacs apply a sunrise-and-sunset rule: if the Sun's entry happens before sunset, that day is counted as the first of the month; if it happens after sunset, the next day is the first of Chithirai. Because the sidereal year is slightly longer than the tropical year, the date drifts very slowly over centuries but is quite stable over a lifetime, unlike lunar festivals that move by up to a month each year.
Rituals and customs
- Viewing the kanni tray of fruits, gold and a mirror on waking
- Drawing a large kolam at the entrance
- Oil bath and new clothes
- Temple visit and worship at home
- Panchangam reading for the new year
- Maanga pachadi and a festive meal