Aadi Amavasai Festival 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 name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Aadi Amavasai
- தமிழ்
- ஆடி அமாவாசை
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: 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
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
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.
The hour
The rule in words
The Amavasai tithi running in the afternoon, the aparahna, which is the hour prescribed for tarpanam; the bath comes first, before the offering.
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.
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.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. 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.