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
- Friday, 13 August 2027
- Friday, 4 August 2028
- Friday, 24 August 2029
Where Varalakshmi Vratam falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 13 Aug
- 2028: 4 Aug, 8 days earlier
- 2029: 24 Aug, 19 days later
The dates, year by year
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The vratam married women keep for Lakshmi on the Friday before the full moon of Shravana, asking for the eight kinds of wealth. A kalasam is set up with a coconut, a face of the goddess, and a sari and jewellery, and worshipped as Lakshmi herself; a thread of nine strands with nine knots is tied on the wrist and the story is read. Neighbours are called in and given tamboolam in the evening.
- Deity
- Lakshmi
- Kind
- Vratam Days kept by a fast or a vow, most of them coming round every lunar month.
Significance
The vrata katha, which Shiva is said to have told Parvati, is the story of Charumati of Kundinapura, a wife devoted to her husband and his parents, to whom Lakshmi came in a dream and told her to worship her as Varalakshmi on this Friday; she and the women of the town kept it, and their houses filled with wealth. Vara means boon, and worshipping this one form is held to be worshipping all eight Lakshmis at once, of wealth, grain, courage, children, victory, learning and the rest. The goddess is treated as a guest in the house: she is welcomed at the door, seated, dressed, fed and sent off the next day, and every step of the puja follows that hospitality. Many families keep it only where it has come down in the family, and a new bride takes it up with her mother-in-law or her mother in her first year.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Varalakshmi Vratam: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a brass or silver kalasam
- a coconut, mango leaves and turmeric
- the face of the goddess, in silver or brass
- a small sari or blouse piece, and jewellery
- rice, coins, betel and a lime for the kalasam
- a yellow thread of nine strands with nine knots
- lotus and other flowers
- banana stems or leaves
- kuthuvilakku, ghee and camphor
- the vrata katha
- thamboolam for the women: betel, fruit, turmeric, kumkum and blouse pieces
The steps
0 of 10 done
What is cooked
Andhra and Telangana offer pulihora, purnam boorelu, bobbatlu, chalimidi, vadapappu, panakam and payasam; Tamil Nadu offers sweet and savoury kozhukattai, appam, vadai, sakkarai pongal, payasam and sundal; Karnataka offers holige, kosambari, chitranna, payasa and panaka. The kitchen is kept strictly vegetarian, and the meal after the puja is the prasadam itself.
The hour
Clock times for Friday, 13 August 2027 at Chennai
The last Friday on or before Shravana Pournami. When the Pournami itself falls on a Friday, that day is taken. The puja is done in the morning, after the kalasam is dressed.
The main rite. The Friday before Shravana Pournami, or the Pournami itself when it is a Friday. The goddess is invited in at the doorway in the morning and the puja done before noon in a good lagna; many families dress the kalasam on the Thursday evening, and the punar puja is on the Saturday.
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 Dwadasi from 03:00 until next day 05:22 | then Shukla Trayodasi until 2 days later, 07:54 |
| Nakshatra | Mula until 14:20 | then Purva Ashadha until next day 17:21 |
| Rahu kaal | 10:39 to 12:14 (1 h 34 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 15:23 to 16:57 (1 h 34 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 07:31 to 09:05 (1 h 34 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:49 to 12:39 (0 h 50 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 15:46 | moonset next day 03:17 |
For Friday, 13 August 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
Most keep a fast until the puja is finished and eat once after it. Nine kinds of sweet and savoury are offered, and the prasadam is given to the women who come.
What is avoided
No meat, eggs, onion or garlic in the house, and those keeping the fast do not eat until the puja is done. The kalasam is not moved on the Friday itself but only at the Saturday's punar puja, and the thread is kept on the wrist for some days rather than cut off.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Telangana and Karnataka keep it alike, Karnataka calling it Varamahalakshmi. Kerala and the north do not keep it; the north's nearest equivalent is Kojagari Lakshmi Puja in Ashwina.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu (the dates above)
- Tamil families keep it where it has come down in the family, calling the Amman in at the doorway on Friday morning with songs and closing with the punar puja on Saturday.
- Telugu
- Andhra and Telangana keep it as the great Shravana Friday of the married woman, with women in silk going from house to house for the vayanam in the evening, and the Padmavathi temple at Tiruchanur holds its own Varalakshmi vratam for the devotees.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps it as Varamahalakshmi, in many homes dressing the kalasam in a sari and jewellery as a full figure of the goddess, and the Bengaluru markets fill with flowers, banana stems and fruit for the day.
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.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
వరలక్ష్మీ వ్రత శుభాకాంక్షలుVaralakshmi vrata shubhakankshalu
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Fridays, Varalakshmi Vratam and Navaratri are its days.
Temples of Lakshmi 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 · Venkatakrishnan (Parthasarathy) with the arrow scars on his face
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adhivyadhihara Bhaktha Anjaneyar, thirty-two feet tall from a single block of granite
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Neervanna Perumal below and Ranganathar on the hill, in four postures
- Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu · Adi Kesava Perumal with the birth shrine of Ramanuja
1 more temple in this gazetteer is 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.
- Lakshmi Ashtottaram (the 108 names)
- Sri Suktam (opening verses)
- Namaste’stu Mahamaye (Mahalakshmi Ashtakam)
- Angam Hareh (Kanakadhara stotram)
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.