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, 11 January 2028
- Saturday, 22 December 2029
- Wednesday, 8 January 2031
Where Thiruvathira falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2028: 11 Jan
- 2029: 22 Dec, 345 days later
- 2031: 8 Jan, 348 days earlier
The dates, year by year
Kerala calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
Thiruvathira nakshatra in Dhanu, the Kerala women's festival for Shiva and for a long married life. Women bathe in the tank before dawn (the thudichu kuli), sing and dance the kaikottikali around the lamp through the night, and eat the ettangadi, eight tubers roasted together. Unmarried girls keep it to ask for a good husband.
- Deity
- Shiva, Parvati
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Thiruvathira is Shiva's own birth star, and the Kerala tellings put two stories on it: the day Parvati's long penance won Shiva as her husband, and the day Kamadeva, burnt by Shiva's third eye, was given back to Rati at her plea. So the day is kept by wives for a long married life and by girls for a good husband, and a new bride's first Thiruvathira, the Poothiruvathira, is kept with special care. On Makayiram, the day before, mothers keep the Makayiram nombu for their children. At midnight the women go out for the pathirappoo, flowers picked in the dark and offered to Parvati before they are worn in the hair, and they swing on the oonjal and sing through the rest of the night.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Thiruvathira: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a nilavilakku
- the ashtamangalyam
- a niranazhi of paddy and a coconut flower (thengin pookkula)
- tubers for the ettangadi: chena, chembu, kachil, koorkka, madhurakkizhangu and nendran plantain
- jaggery, grated coconut, sesame and cowpea
- arrowroot powder (koova)
- tender coconuts and nendran plantains
- kasavu mundu and neriyathu
- jasmine and flowers for the pathirappoo
- an oonjal (swing)
- kanmashi and sandal paste
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
No rice is cooked in the usual way through the day. The ettangadi of eight roasted tubers and plantain with jaggery, coconut, sesame and cowpea, the koova payasam of arrowroot with jaggery and coconut milk, and the Thiruvathira puzhukku of tubers, raw plantain and cowpea cooked with coconut are the dishes, and tender coconut water and nendran plantains carry the fast; the list of eight varies from house to house. Tamil Nadu's Thiruvathirai has foods of its own, the thiruvathirai kali of rice and jaggery with the ezhu kari kootu of seven vegetables, so the two neighbours keep one star with opposite rules about rice.
The hour
Clock times for Tuesday, 11 January 2028 at Chennai
The nakshatra running at sunrise in Dhanu; the bathing is before dawn and the singing runs through the night before.
The main rite. Thiruvathira nakshatra running at sunrise in Dhanu. The women's night is the one leading into that sunrise, with the ettangadi and the lamp at dusk, the pathirappoo at midnight and the thudichu kuli in the tank before dawn; traditions vary on which evening the ettangadi is offered.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Arunodaya | 04:58 | the 96 minutes before sunrise, the hour of the oil bath |
| Sunrise | 06:34 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
Sunrise 06:34, sunset 17:59, 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 Chaturdasi from previous day 15:37 until 12:46 | then Shukla Pournami until next day 09:33 |
| Nakshatra | Ardra until 21:58 | then Punarvasu until next day 19:22 |
| Rahu kaal | 15:08 to 16:33 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 09:25 to 10:51 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 12:17 to 13:42 (1 h 26 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:54 to 12:39 (0 h 46 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 17:13 | moonset next day 06:32 |
For Tuesday, 11 January 2028 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No rice through the day: the food is the koova payasam of arrowroot, tender coconut water and the eight roasted tubers, and many keep a full fast until the night.
What is avoided
Those keeping the nombu eat no rice from dawn until the fast is broken, and the night is not slept through. A family in mourning for a death that year does not join the dance.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Kerala keeps it as a women's vratam; Tamil Nadu keeps the same star as Thiruvathirai, the Arudra Darshanam of Nataraja at Chidambaram, which is a temple festival rather than a domestic one.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu keeps the same star in Margazhi as Thiruvathirai, the Arudra Darshanam of Nataraja at Chidambaram, a temple festival more than a household one, with the fast broken after the morning darshan.
- Kerala (the dates above)
- Kerala keeps it as the women's night, strongest in the old tharavadu houses of central Kerala, where a new bride's Poothiruvathira is still a family occasion; the Thiruvathirakali is now danced in schools and on stages across the state.
- Sri Lanka
- In Jaffna and the east the ten days of the Thiruvempavai end on Thiruvathirai, with the Nataraja brought out at dawn in the Shiva temples.
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
തിരുവാതിര ആശംസകൾThiruvathira ashamsakal
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Thillai Nataraja Temple 197 kmChidambaram, Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu
The entry for this day names Chidambaram, and it is a temple of Shiva. Tamil Nadu keeps the same star as Thiruvathirai, the Arudra Darshanam of Nataraja at Chidambaram, which is a temple festival rather than a domestic one.
Temples of Shiva and Parvati 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 · Kapaleeswarar and Karpagambal, with the peacock shrine
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adipureeswarar and Vadivudai Amman with Thyagaraja
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Masilamaniswarar with Kodiyidai Nayaki
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adi Kamakshi and Kamakshi, standing on the pancha agni penance
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.
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.