Thiruvathira Festival Thiruvathira nakshatra in Dhanu, the Kerala women's festival for Shiva and for a long married life.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Thiruvathira
- മലയാളം
- തിരുവാതിര
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
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.
The hour
The rule in words
The nakshatra running at sunrise in Dhanu; the bathing is before dawn and the singing runs through the night before.
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.
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.
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.