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
Kerala calendar, computed for Chennai
- Tuesday, 17 November 2026
- Wednesday, 17 November 2027
- Thursday, 16 November 2028
Where Mandala kalam begins falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2026: 17 Nov
- 2027: 17 Nov, the same day of the year
- 2028: 16 Nov, the same day of the year
The dates, year by year
Kerala calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
Vrischikam 1, the first of the forty-one days of the Sabarimala vratam. The pilgrim puts on the black or blue mundu and the rudraksha or tulsi mala, keeps celibacy, walks barefoot, and is addressed as Swami by everyone else; at the end of the mandalam the irumudi is filled and the climb to Sabarimala is made. The Mandala Puja on the forty-first day closes it, and the Makaravilakku follows in Makaram.
- Deity
- Ayyappan
- Kind
- Observance Days marked, watched or begun, without a fast or a feast of their own.
Significance
A mandalam is forty-one days, held long enough for a vow to take hold of the body and its habits, and the pilgrim keeps it so that he climbs as Ayyappan himself lived, as a celibate ascetic of the forest. That is why every pilgrim, and the god, is called Swami, and why the word Tattvamasi stands over the sanctum. Only one who has kept the vratam and carries the irumudi on his head may climb the pathinettampadi, the eighteen steps. The path passes Erumeli, where the pilgrims dance the petta thullal and honour Vavar, the Muslim companion of Ayyappan, at his mosque, which is one reason the pilgrimage has always drawn people of every caste and faith. The season closes with the Mandala Puja, when the deity wears the thanka anki, the golden attire carried in procession from Aranmula.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Mandala kalam begins: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a mala of rudraksha or tulasi beads with an Ayyappa pendant
- black, blue or saffron mundu and a thorthu
- a picture of Ayyappan and a lamp
- an irumudi, the two-pocket cloth bundle
- a coconut to fill with ghee (neythenga) and pure ghee
- raw rice, avil, malar, kalkandam and dried grapes
- turmeric powder, kumkumam, sandal paste, camphor and agarbatti
- betel leaves, areca nut and coins
- spare coconuts to break on the way
- a sharakol, the arrow a kanni swami leaves at Saramkuthi
The steps
0 of 10 done
What is cooked
The vratam food is plain vegetarian, often one full meal at midday and something light at night, and many groups leave out onion and garlic as well. The group bhajans end with prasadam such as sharkara payasam or panakam. At Sabarimala the prasadams are the aravana, a dark payasam of rice, jaggery and ghee, and the unniyappam; at Pampa the groups cook and share the Pampa sadya, and the annadanam at the sannidhanam feeds all who come.
The hour
Clock times for Tuesday, 17 November 2026 at Chennai
From the first day of Vrischikam, counted for forty-one days to the Mandala Puja.
The main rite. The mala is put on in the morning after the bath, on the first day of Vrischikam or on a good day the guru swami fixes, and the forty-one days are counted from that morning. The irumudi is filled on the day of leaving, and the Mandala Puja falls on the forty-first day of the season.
This day's rule names no hour of its own: it is fixed by the tithi or the nakshatra running at sunrise. The rule above is the whole of it, and the day's own times are below.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Shukla Ashtami from 04:20 until next day 06:06 | then Shukla Navami until 2 days later, 07:07 |
| Nakshatra | Dhanishta until next day 04:35 | then Shatabhisha until 2 days later, 06:11 |
| Rahu kaal | 14:46 to 16:13 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 09:01 to 10:27 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 11:54 to 13:20 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:31 to 12:17 (0 h 46 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 12:18 | moonset next day 00:13 |
For Tuesday, 17 November 2026 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
One vegetarian meal a day is the common rule, with no alcohol, no meat, no shaving and no sleeping on a bed. Traditions vary on how strict the forty-one days are.
What is avoided
No meat, fish, eggs, alcohol or tobacco, no shaving or cutting of hair and nails, and no sexual life for as long as the mala is worn. The pilgrim does not sleep on a bed, keeps away from funerals and from houses under birth or death pollution, and speaks no harsh word; traditions vary on how strictly each rule is kept.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Kerala's vratam, but the pilgrims come from every southern state; the Tamil Nadu and Telugu ayyappa groups keep the same forty-one days.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil pilgrims take the mala on Karthigai 1, the same day by the Tamil count, and many groups perform the padi puja, lighting lamps on eighteen steps built at home, before they set out.
- Kerala (the dates above)
- The home of the pilgrimage: Kerala pilgrims go in family and village groups, the local Ayyappa temples hold bhajans every evening of the season, and many men keep the full vratam only in the years they climb.
- Telugu
- In Andhra and Telangana the Ayyappa deeksha is taken in very large numbers, in black, each group under a guru swami, with the padi puja and the bhiksha, the meals families offer to the swamis.
- Kannada
- Karnataka's pilgrims keep the same forty-one days under a guru swami, with bhajans and the padi puja, and many time the climb for the Makaravilakku.
The dates above are the Kerala 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
സ്വാമിയേ ശരണമയ്യപ്പാSwamiye saranam Ayyappa
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Pathanamthitta, Kerala
The entry for this day names Sabarimala, and it is a temple of Ayyappan. Vrischikam 1, the first of the forty-one days of the Sabarimala vratam.
Temples of Ayyappan 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.
- Kollam, Kerala · Dharma Sastha as the householder, with Poorna and Pushkala
- Kollam, Kerala · Sastha as a boy, in the balaka bhava, beside the river
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
Mandala kalam begins's own date is set by the rule in "The hour" above, and no muhurtham moves it. For a temple visit around it, whose day the family does choose, the finder below applies these rules.
A temple visit, or the first darshan at a new temple. No weekday is ruled out: Tuesday belongs to Murugan and the Amman, Saturday to Perumal and Sani, so the day usually follows the deity rather than the almanac. Ashtami and Chaturdasi are the two tithis held back for darshan, with the standing exceptions of Sivaratri on Krishna Chaturdasi and Kala Bhairava Ashtami, which are kept on those very days. Rahu kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika kaal are not scored here; the panchangam page prints them for the day you pick, and most families simply wait them out.
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.