Festival Pitrus, Yama
Aadi Amavasai
The new moon of Aadi, one of the three days of the year on which tarpanam is offered to the ancestors (with Thai Amavasai and Mahalaya Amavasai).
Aadi Amavasai 2027 falls on Monday, 2 August, computed for Chennai.
Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
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A tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
- Monday, 2 August 2027
- Friday, 21 July 2028
- Thursday, 9 August 2029
Where Aadi Amavasai falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 2 Aug
- 2028: 21 Jul, 11 days earlier
- 2029: 9 Aug, 18 days later
The dates, year by year
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The new moon of Aadi, one of the three days of the year on which tarpanam is offered to the ancestors (with Thai Amavasai and Mahalaya Amavasai). The son of the house offers water and sesame at the sea, a river or a tank, facing south. Rameswaram, Agni Theertham and the Kaveri ghats draw large crowds.
- Deity
- Pitrus, Yama
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Aadi opens Dakshinayanam, the half-year that is the night of the gods, and the ancestors are held to draw nearest to the living in it; the first new moon of that half is the one on which they wait most keenly for their water, as Thai Amavasai is the first of the bright half. A tarpanam made on Aadi Amavasai is said to satisfy them for the year and to bring their blessing on the line, while one neglected is felt as a debt, the pitru rinam, that the family carries. The sesame is black because it belongs to the ancestors, and the water is poured from the part of the palm between the thumb and the forefinger because that is the pitru theertham, the ancestors' channel. In the Tamil home the crow is the ancestors' messenger: the first portion of the day's cooking is set out for the crows, and the family eats only after they have come.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Aadi Amavasai: how it is kept
Keep ready
- black sesame (ellu)
- darbha grass for the pavitram, the koorcham and the seat
- a plate, a panchapaathram and an uddharani
- clean water
- a washed veshti
- raw rice, a raw plantain and vegetables for the dana
- agathi keerai for the cow
- a banana leaf for the crows' portion
- dakshina
The steps
0 of 9 done
What is cooked
One plain meal without onion or garlic, cooked from the vegetables of a shraddha kitchen, raw plantain, broad beans, bitter gourd and pumpkin, with rice, paruppu, rasam and ellu podi (sesame powder), and in many Tamil homes ulundu vadai and payasam; the exact list varies by family and community. In Kerala the bali at the ghats is followed by a vegetarian meal at home.
The hour
Clock times for Monday, 2 August 2027 at Chennai
The Amavasai tithi running in the afternoon, the aparahna, which is the hour prescribed for tarpanam; the bath comes first, before the offering.
The main rite. The Amavasai of Aadi, kept on the day the tithi runs, with the aparahna, the afternoon, as the hour the texts appoint for the ancestors. Most households offer the tarpanam in the morning of that day after the bath, and the one who offers it eats only afterwards.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Aparahna | 13:31 | the afternoon, three fifths of the daylight after sunrise |
Sunrise 05:55, sunset 18:36, UTC+5.5. These are the instants the rule is read at, not the temple's own puja times, which every temple prints for itself.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Krishna Amavasai from previous day 19:21 until 15:35 | then Shukla Prathamai until next day 11:52 |
| Nakshatra | Pushya until 17:10 | then Ashlesha until next day 14:17 |
| Rahu kaal | 07:30 to 09:05 (1 h 35 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 10:40 to 12:15 (1 h 35 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 13:50 to 15:26 (1 h 35 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:50 to 12:41 (0 h 51 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 05:33 | moonset 18:38 |
For Monday, 2 August 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
The one who offers tarpanam fasts until it is done and then eats one plain meal without onion or garlic. Sesame, darbha grass and water are the offering.
What is avoided
No kolam before the rite, no meat, fish, onion or garlic, and no celebration, new purchase or auspicious beginning that day. No greeting is exchanged, since it is a day of remembrance, and the one offering the tarpanam does not eat before it.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The same new moon is Karkidaka Vavu in Kerala, the largest bali day of the Malayalam year. North India keeps the corresponding day as an Amavasya bath but reserves the great tarpan for Sarva Pitru Amavasya.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu (the dates above)
- The crowds are greatest at the Agni Theertham at Rameswaram, at Kanyakumari, at the Amma Mandapam ghat at Srirangam and at Bhavani Kooduthurai, where the vadhyars sit in rows on the steps and families take their turn.
- Kerala
- Kerala keeps the same new moon as Karkidaka Vavu, the largest bali of its year, at Aluva Manappuram on the Periyar, at Thirunelli in Wayanad and at Varkala Papanasam, sometimes a day apart from the Tamil Aadi Amavasai.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps the same new moon as Bheemana Amavasya, a wives' vratam in which Shiva and Parvati are worshipped as a pair of lamps for the husband's long life, rather than as an ancestor day.
- North India
- The north keeps the same new moon as Hariyali Amavasya in Sawan, with a bath, a small offering to the ancestors and the planting of trees; the great tarpan waits for Sarva Pitru Amavasya.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra keeps it as Deep Amavasya, the last day of Ashadh, when every lamp in the house is scrubbed, set out and worshipped, and as Gatari, the last day of meat before Shravan.
- Sri Lanka
- Sri Lankan Tamils keep Aadi Amavasai for fathers who have died, as Chitra Pournami is kept for mothers, and the tarpanam at the Keerimalai springs near Jaffna is the island's largest.
The dates above are the Tamil Nadu reckoning, because that is the calendar this key belongs to. Switch the tradition on the calendar page to see how another one dates the same day.
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu
The entry for this day names Rameswaram, and it is a temple of Pitrus. This day is kept for Pitrus, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Pitru and ancestors. Rameswaram, Agni Theertham and the Kaveri ghats draw large crowds.
- Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. This day is kept for Pitrus, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Pitru and ancestors. Amavasai and Aadi Amavasai tarpanam on the nearby shore are what most come for.
- Jaffna, Northern Province, Sri Lanka
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. This day is kept for Pitrus, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Pitru and ancestors. Aadi Amavasai tarpanam at Keerimalai is the largest ancestor rite in the north of the island.
- Wayanad, Kerala
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. This day is kept for Pitrus, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Pitru and ancestors. Karkidaka Vavu (Aadi Amavasai) is its great day.
- Kollumangudi, Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu
This day is kept for Pitrus, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Pitru and ancestors. Visited where a family quarrel or a father’s displeasure is read into the chart, and on amavasai for the ancestors.
- Tamil Nadu
This day is kept for Pitrus, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Pitru and ancestors. Tula snanam through Aippasi, when lakhs bathe at the ghats, and amavasai tarpanam are what most come for.
26 more temples in this gazetteer are recorded for the day. Find temples near you.
Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.
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A temple is listed here only where the gazetteer's own line names this day, or where this day's own entry names the town, or where the day belongs to the ancestors or the nagas and the temple is recorded for that rite. Where neither table says anything, nothing is listed as kept for the day; where fewer than three are, the nearest temples of the day's own gods are added under a heading of their own.
Mantras
The prayers said with the day. Each opens with its words and meaning.
- Pitru tarpanam sankalpam
- Devatabhyah Pitribhyashcha (to the ancestors)
A name without a link is a long reading, read in full from the family’s own copy or at the place of worship; the library prints the shorter prayers.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it.
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A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.