Karthigai Deepam

The day

• The Tamil festival of lamps, kept in the month of Karthigai on the day the moon is in the Krittika star (practice)
• At Tiruvannamalai a great flame is lit on the summit of the Arunachala hill at dusk (practice)

What to do today

• At dusk, light rows of clay lamps at the doorway and around the house, in the window this page shows.
• Bow to Shiva, who showed himself as a column of light, and to Murugan, the son of the Krittikas.

Preparing

• Clean the house, draw a kolam at the threshold, and set out washed clay lamps (agal vilakku) (practice)
• Fill them with ghee or sesame oil and cotton wicks (practice)

Lighting

• Light the first lamp before the household shrine, then carry its flame to the rest (practice)
• Set the lamps in rows at the doorway, on the steps and walls, and by the tulsi (practice)
• The Nirnayasindhu gives lamps at the evening sandhya, in the temple and the home, for the Kartika full moon; the Tamil lamps of Karthigai keep that same evening hour by custom.

Prayer

• Chant Shiva's names, or the names of Arunachala if your family keeps them, and pray that the light drive darkness from the home (practice)

Through the evening

• Let the lamps burn as long as they will (practice)

The fast

• Many keep a fast through the day and eat only after the lamps are lit (practice)
• Those who cannot fast take fruit and milk (practice)

What is offered

• Karthigai pori — puffed rice bound with jaggery (practice)
• Nei appam — small sweet cakes fried in ghee (practice)
• These are offered first at the shrine and to the lamp, then shared (practice)

The column of light

• The Arunachala-mahatmya of the Skanda Purana tells how Brahma and Vishnu, disputing which of them was greater, met a column of light whose top and base neither could find.
• Humbled, they asked that the unbearable light take the gentler form of a hill, and that every year in Kartika, under the Krittika star at the close of day, it show its own light again.
• The same mahatmya has Gauri worship the hill at nightfall under Krittika in Kartika, and praises lamps offered on Krittika.

At Tiruvannamalai

• A lamp is lit in the temple before dawn (Bharani Deepam), and the Maha Deepam on the hilltop at dusk (practice)
• Pilgrims walk around the hill (girivalam) on this day (practice)

The katha

• The Matsya Purana tells that the six Krittikas, bright as suns, gave Parvati water from a lotus leaf, asking that the child to be born be their son too and bear their name.
• Skanda was born with six faces, and was called Kumara, Skanda, Vishakha, Shanmukha and Kartikeya — the son of the Krittikas.

Kartikeya and the Krittika star

• The Kashi-khanda, quoted in both digests, praises seeing Kartikeya on the Kartika full moon when the moon is in Krittika.
• Note: The Matsya sets Skanda's birth in Chaitra; it is the Krittikas' name, not his birthday, that links him to this star.

In Tamil homes

• Murugan is honoured with the lamps of Karthigai, and his temples keep the day (practice)

The star, not the tithi

• Karthigai Deepam is kept on the Krittika day of the Tamil month of Karthigai; it often falls on or near the full moon (practice)
• Note: When Krittika and the full moon fall on different days, Tamil temples and homes follow Krittika (practice)

The lamp hour

• The Nirnayasindhu gives lamps at the evening sandhya for the Kartika full moon; this page applies that hour to the Krittika day by custom.

On this page

• The date shown is the one the engine marks for your city, and the window is the evening sandhya.

Tamil Nadu

• Rows of clay lamps line every home, and the streets glow at dusk (practice)
• Before temples, a tall pile of dried palm leaves (sokkapanai) is set alight (practice)

An old Tamil festival

• Old Tamil poetry of the Sangam age is traditionally cited for a lamp festival in the month of the Krittika star; it is named here as tradition, not quoted (practice)

Kerala and beyond

• In Kerala the day is kept as Thrikarthika, with lamps lit at dusk (practice)
• Tamil families everywhere light the Karthigai lamps (practice)