Festival Chitragupta, Meenakshi, Sundareswarar
Chithirai Pournami · Chitra Pournami
The full moon of Chithirai, kept for Chitragupta, the keeper of the record of every deed.
Chithirai Pournami · Chitra Pournami 2027 falls on Tuesday, 20 April, 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
- Tuesday, 20 April 2027
- Monday, 8 May 2028
- Saturday, 28 April 2029
Where Chithirai Pournami · Chitra Pournami falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 20 Apr
- 2028: 8 May, 19 days later
- 2029: 28 Apr, 11 days earlier
The dates, year by year
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The full moon of Chithirai, kept for Chitragupta, the keeper of the record of every deed. At Madurai it closes the Chithirai thiruvizha, the marriage of Meenakshi and Sundareswarar and the Kallazhagar festival at the Vaigai. Families light lamps and keep the Chitragupta vratam for the account of the year past.
- Deity
- Chitragupta, Meenakshi, Sundareswarar
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
One Tamil telling of Chitragupta's birth says Parvati drew a figure, a chitram, and Shiva breathed life into it, and the child was set beside Yama to write down every deed of every life. The full moon of Chithirai often falls in Chitra nakshatra, his own star, so the day is his more than any other, and families keep it to ask that their account be read kindly and to lay down the weight of the year past. At Madurai the day belongs to Kallazhagar, who rides down from the Azhagar hills on a golden horse to give away his sister Meenakshi, finds the wedding already done, and gives his gifts from the bed of the Vaigai before turning back. At Tiruvannamalai it is the largest girivalam of the year, and in countless villages the family carries its dinner to the terrace or the riverbank and eats it in the moonlight, the nila soru.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Chithirai Pournami · Chitra Pournami: how it is kept
Keep ready
- rice flour for the kolam
- a picture of Chitragupta, or a kolam of him
- a new notebook and pen, or a palm leaf and stylus
- kuthuvilakku and ghee
- flowers and camphor
- lemon, tamarind, coconut and curd for the chitrannam
- neer mor or panagam
- a water pot, fan, umbrella or sandals to give away
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
Tamil Nadu offers chitrannam, the variety rices (lemon rice, tamarind rice, coconut rice and curd rice), with payasam and neer mor, and the moonlight meal is usually these same rices carried up in vessels; those keeping the vratam break the fast after moonrise with a plain vegetarian meal. In the north the same full moon is Hanuman Jayanti, and boondi laddu is the offering at the Hanuman temples.
The hour
Clock times for Tuesday, 20 April 2027 at Chennai
The Pournami tithi running at sunset; the lamp and the puja belong to the evening.
The main rite. The Pournami tithi running at sunset. The Chitragupta puja and the lamp belong to the evening as the moon rises, and those who fast eat only after they have seen it.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunset | 18:22 | the moment the sun goes down |
| Pradosha kala | 18:22 to 20:46 | the 2 h 24 min after sunset, the evening worship hour |
Sunrise 05:54, sunset 18:22, 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 | Shukla Pournami from previous day 06:09 until next day 03:57 | then Krishna Prathamai until 2 days later, 03:31 |
| Nakshatra | Chitra until next day 04:29 | then Swati until 2 days later, 04:44 |
| Rahu kaal | 15:15 to 16:49 (1 h 34 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 09:01 to 10:34 (1 h 34 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 12:08 to 13:42 (1 h 34 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:43 to 12:33 (0 h 50 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 17:55 | moonset next day 05:48 |
For Tuesday, 20 April 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
Many keep a partial fast through the day and eat after the moon is seen. Chitragupta is offered chitrannam, the coloured rices, and the meal is vegetarian.
What is avoided
No meat, fish or eggs, and no lie or harsh word on the day given to the keeper of accounts. Those who keep the fast do not eat until the moon has been seen.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
A Chitragupta temple day in Tamil Nadu and a bathing day at the ghats elsewhere in the south; the north keeps the same full moon as Hanuman Jayanti.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu (the dates above)
- Kept for Chitragupta in every Tamil home that keeps the vratam and at his temple in Kanchipuram; Madurai makes it the height of the Chithirai thiruvizha with Kallazhagar entering the Vaigai, and Tiruvannamalai draws lakhs for the girivalam.
- Kerala
- In Kerala the day is known for the Mangaladevi Kannagi temple in the hills above Kumily, on the Tamil Nadu border, which opens to pilgrims only on Chitra Pournami.
- Telugu
- In Andhra and Telangana many begin the forty-one day Hanuman deeksha on this full moon, to close it on the Telugu Hanuman Jayanti in Vaishakha.
- North India
- The north keeps the same full moon as Hanuman Jayanti, with the Hanuman Chalisa read at the temples from before dawn.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra also keeps Chaitra Pournima as Hanuman Jayanti, the birth marked in the temples at sunrise.
- Sri Lanka
- Sri Lankan Tamils keep Chitra Pournami for mothers who have died: the children fast, offer at the temple and feed others in her name, as Aadi Amavasai is kept for fathers.
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.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
சித்ரா பௌர்ணமி நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்Chitra Pournami nalvazhthukkal
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Madurai, Tamil Nadu
The entry for this day names Madurai, and it is a temple of Meenakshi. At Madurai it closes the Chithirai thiruvizha, the marriage of Meenakshi and Sundareswarar and the Kallazhagar festival at the Vaigai.
Temples of Meenakshi near you
Not recorded for this day in particular: the nearest temples of the day's own gods, for a reader whose own temple is not listed above.
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adi Kamakshi and Kamakshi, standing on the pancha agni penance
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Devi Karumariamman in her three forms
- Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu · Kamakshi Devi seated in padmasana with the Sri Chakra
- Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu · Adhiparasakthi as the swayambhu in the anthill
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.
Fixing a day for it
The muhurtham rules for a puja held alongside, whose day the family chooses
Chithirai Pournami · Chitra Pournami's own date is set by the rule in "The hour" above, and no muhurtham moves it. For a satyanarayana puja around it, whose day the family does choose, the finder below applies these rules.
The Satyanarayana vratam and katha at home. Pournami is the day of the vratam and Ekadasi the next best; Kartika Pournami, Vaishakha Pournami and the Sankranti days are the ones most families choose. Thursday, the day of Guru, comes first among the weekdays, and Tuesday is the one usually passed over. The puja is done in the evening and the prasadam shared after the katha, so no lagna window is computed here.
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.