Tamil New Year (Puthandu)
Next: April 14, 2027
A sweet, sour, bitter new beginning.
The story
Where it comes from
Puthandu, the Tamil New Year, is the first day of Chithirai, the opening month of the Tamil solar calendar. It begins when the Sun enters Mesha, the sign of Aries: if that moment comes before sunset the year starts that day, and if it comes after sunset, the next day, so in practice Puthandu falls on 14 April. It is kept by Tamils in Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and around the world. Vaisakhi in Punjab, Vishu in Kerala and the Sinhala New Year in Sri Lanka fall on or near the same day.
How it's celebrated
Families clean the house the night before and draw kolam patterns in rice flour at the door. In many homes the first sight of the year is a tray of mangoes, bananas and jackfruit, betel leaves, flowers, coins, jewellery and a mirror. People bathe, wear new clothes, visit the temple and seek their elders' blessings, often receiving money in return. The feast includes mangai pachadi, a raw-mango relish that is sweet, sour and bitter at once, like the year ahead.
Did you know
- Tamil cooking speaks of six tastes, aarusuvai, and the New Year mangai pachadi holds them all: sweet jaggery, sour mango, bitter neem flowers, salt, turmeric and hot chilli.
- On the eve of Puthandu, shoppers crowd Campbell Lane in Singapore's Little India for flower garlands, banana leaves, mirrors and pictures of deities.
- In Sri Lanka the government publishes a schedule of auspicious times for the shared Sinhala and Tamil New Year, down to the minute the new year dawns.
The greeting
Iniya Puthandu Vazhthukkal · இனிய புத்தாண்டு வாழ்த்துக்கள்
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