Tamilnadu follows Solar calendar, while most other states in India follows Lunar calendar.
As per lunar calendar, beginning of a month is based on Amavasya (new moon day); while in solar calendar, sun's entry into a rasi (pronounced as raasi; also called as rashi or zodiac) marks the beginning of a month. With mesham/mesha being first rasi, sun's entry into mesham is considered as new year.
When we say sun's entry, it means sun's position, when viewed from earth, with band of stars (nakshatra/nakshatram) in the background. Earth revolves around the sun in the solar system. Very distant from the solar system exists constellation of stars. Everything in the universe is moving. As stars are far away from solar system, their movement is negligible. As earth revolves around sun, when sun viewed from earth, it appears with different band of starts in the background at different part of the year.
There are 27 stars (nakshatrams/nakshatras), each nakshatram is divided into 4 padhas, giving 108 padhas in total. 9 nakshatra padhas are assigned to each of the 12 rasi.
As Tamilnadu follows solar calendar, sun's entry into first nakshatram ashwini (with mesham being its rasi) marks the beginning of the new year. TO be more precise, the day sun's first ray shows with ashwini nakshatram in the background is considered auspucious and makes it technically the new year. New year in tamilnadu is called as varuda pirappu or varusha pirappu or puthaandu. This occurs on 14th of April every year.
Tamil households celebrate varusha pirappu with beautiful kolam (rangoli / designs made with powdered rice) in front of their house. The day starts by looking at the mirror with a plate of fruits placed in front of the mirror. Maangai pachidi (sweet made with mango, jaggery with rechilli seasoning) and veppampoo pachidi (sweet made with neem flowers, jaggery and seasoning). THe philosophy behind these dishes is that, year would be filled with sweet, sour, bitter and spicy circumstances. We should move across treating everything equally.
இனிய புத்தாண்டு நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்!!
Happy Tamil New Year!
No comments:
Post a Comment