Mahalaya Amavasya · Bathukamma begins Festival The new moon that closes the fortnight of the ancestors, on which tarpanam is offered to every forebear, and especially to those whose day of death is not known.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Mahalaya Amavasya · Bathukamma begins
- తెలుగు
- మహాలయ అమావాస్య · బతుకమ్మ ఆరంభం
- ಕನ್ನಡ
- ಮಹಾಲಯ ಅಮಾವಾಸ್ಯೆ
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 that closes the fortnight of the ancestors, on which tarpanam is offered to every forebear, and especially to those whose day of death is not known. In Telangana the same evening opens Bathukamma, the nine nights on which women build a conical stack of seasonal flowers, sing around it and float it on the tank at the end of each day.
- Deity
- Pitrus, Yama, Gauri
- 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 Amavasya tithi at sunrise, with the tarpanam offered in the afternoon, the aparahna; Bathukamma is arranged at dusk.
The fast
The one who offers tarpanam fasts until it is done. The meal after it is vegetarian, without onion or garlic.
Where the regions differ
Tamil Nadu keeps the same new moon as Mahalaya Amavasai; the north calls it Sarva Pitru Amavasya and Bengal keeps it as Mahalaya, the dawn on which the Chandi is recited and Durga is invited.
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.