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
- Saturday, 6 February 2027
- Wednesday, 26 January 2028
- Sunday, 14 January 2029
Where Thai Amavasai falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 6 Feb
- 2028: 26 Jan, 11 days earlier
- 2029: 14 Jan, 12 days earlier
The dates, year by year
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The new moon of Thai, the second of the three tarpanam days of the Tamil year. It falls in Uttarayana, which is held to make the offering to the ancestors more fruitful, and Rameswaram, Thirunallar, the Kaveri ghats and the sea at Chennai fill with families doing the rite.
- Deity
- Pitrus, Surya
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
The three great tarpanam days of the Tamil year stand at the turns of the Sun's road: Aadi Amavasai as it turns south, the Mahalaya Amavasai in Purattasi, and Thai Amavasai just after it turns north again. A common telling is that the ancestors who came near the family through the Mahalaya fortnight go back to their own world through Uttarayana, and that what is offered on this new moon goes with them. The crow is fed before the family eats because it is held to carry the offering to them, and a cow is given agathi keerai for the same merit. At Thirukkadaiyur the day has a story of its own: Abhirami Bhattar, lost in the goddess, told the Maratha king of Thanjavur that it was the full moon, and when the king held him to his word, Abhirami threw her earring into the sky to shine as the moon while he sang the Abhirami Anthathi.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Thai Amavasai: how it is kept
Keep ready
- black sesame seeds (karuppu ellu)
- darbha grass and a darbha pavitram
- a brass or copper plate and a vessel of water
- raw rice
- a washed veshti and angavastram
- the family's tarpanam book, or the vadhyar
- the names of the ancestors and the gotra, written down
- agathi keerai for the cow
- a plantain leaf for the crows' portion
- dakshina
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
The meal is cooked after the rite, without onion or garlic: rice with ghee, paruppu, a vazhakkai curry, agathi keerai, a pachadi, rasam and a payasam, with vadai in many homes; the crows' portion is rice mixed with sesame and ghee. Families that eat meat keep the day vegetarian, as on every tarpanam day.
The hour
Clock times for Saturday, 6 February 2027 at Chennai
The Amavasai tithi in the afternoon, the aparahna; the sea or river bath comes first.
The main rite. The Amavasai tithi as it stands in the afternoon, the aparahna, fixes the day; the bath comes first, and many families offer the tarpanam in the morning after it while the stricter wait for the afternoon.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Aparahna | 13:33 | the afternoon, three fifths of the daylight after sunrise |
Sunrise 06:34, sunset 18:12, 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 19:06 until 21:26 | then Shukla Prathamai until next day 23:28 |
| Nakshatra | Shravana until 21:20 | then Dhanishta until next day 23:49 |
| Rahu kaal | 09:29 to 10:56 (1 h 27 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 13:50 to 15:17 (1 h 27 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 06:34 to 08:02 (1 h 27 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 12:00 to 12:46 (0 h 46 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 06:15 | moonset 18:01 |
For Saturday, 6 February 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 the rite is over and then eats one plain meal.
What is avoided
No greeting, no feast and no new venture; nothing festive is begun until the tarpanam is done. The one who offers takes no food before the rite, and the house keeps the day free of meat, onion and garlic.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The north keeps the corresponding Magha new moon as Mauni Amavasya, the day of silence and the bath at the Sangam; Kerala's great bali day is Karkidaka Vavu in July instead.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu (the dates above)
- Rameswaram's Agni Theertham, the Kaveri ghats at Srirangam, Thiruvaiyaru and Kumbakonam, the Veeraraghava temple tank at Thiruvallur, Thirunallar, and the sea at Chennai and Kanyakumari are crowded from before dawn; at Thirukkadaiyur the Abhirami Anthathi is sung and the story of the moon remembered.
- Telugu
- The Telugu calendar calls the same new moon Pushya Amavasya, and in the Godavari delta it is Chollangi Amavasya, with a bath where the Tulyabhaga meets the sea near Kakinada.
- North India
- The north keeps the same new moon as Mauni Amavasya, the day of silence, with the great bath at the Sangam in Prayag during the Magh Mela; offerings to the ancestors follow the bath.
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. It falls in Uttarayana, which is held to make the offering to the ancestors more fruitful, and Rameswaram, Thirunallar, the Kaveri ghats and the sea at Chennai fill with families doing the rite.
- Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Eleven Divya Desams within a few miles, whose utsavars come together for the Garuda Sevai on Thai Amavasai, one of the great sights of the delta.
- 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.
- Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu
This day is kept for Pitrus, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Pitru and ancestors. Amavasai tarpanam and Maha Sivaratri are its days
- Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu
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.
27 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)
- Abirami Andhadhi: Udhikkindra Sengadhir
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.