Tamil Deepavali is a morning festival, and it comes a day before the rest of India's. On Naraka Chaturdasi, the fourteenth of the waning Moon in Aippasi, the household is woken well before dawn. Elders put oil on each head, everyone bathes in hot water, puts on new clothes laid out with a dab of turmeric, lights the first crackers in the dark, and sits down to sweets by sunrise.
The story
The demon Narakasura had imprisoned sixteen thousand women and stolen the earrings of the mother of the gods. Krishna and Satyabhama killed him before dawn on this day. Dying, he asked that people remember the morning with lamps and joy and not with grief.
The oil bath is counted equal to a bath in the Ganga, which is said to be present in all water on this morning.
கங்கா ஸ்நானம் ஆச்சா?
Have you had your Ganga bath?
The greeting of Deepavali morning
How the morning goes
- Ganga snanamSesame oil, shikakai and hot water, before sunrise. The water is heated in a pot decorated the night before.
- New clothesBlessed with kumkum or turmeric at the corner before they are worn.
- Deepavali legiyamA dark, gingery digestive paste, taken first, before the sweets.
- PattasuCrackers from Sivakasi, lit from the dark hours onward.
- Thalai DeepavaliA couple's first Deepavali after marriage is spent at the bride's parents' house, with gifts.
Why this date
Tamil Deepavali is Naraka Chaturdasi: the day on which the Chaturdasi of the waning fortnight of Ashvina is present before dawn, at the hour of the oil bath. It usually falls the day before the new-moon Diwali of the north.
Deepavali in other years
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Monday | |
| 2026 | Sunday | |
| 2027 | Thursday | |
| 2028 | Tuesday | |
| 2029 | Monday | |
| 2030 | Friday |
More Tamil festivals
15 NovemberSkanda Sashtiகந்த சஷ்டி
24 NovemberKarthigai Deepamகார்த்திகை தீபம்
20 OctoberVijayadashamiவிஜயதசமி
20 OctoberSaraswati Puja and Ayudha Pujaசரஸ்வதி பூஜை · ஆயுத பூஜை
19 OctoberDurga Ashtamiதுர்காஷ்டமி
15 DecemberSubrahmanya Sashtiசுப்ரமண்ய சஷ்டி
Where to see Deepavali
In Tamil Nadu
- SivakasiTamil NaduThe town that makes most of India's fireworks.
- Meenakshi Temple, MaduraiTamil NaduThe goddess is dressed in diamonds and the streets round the temple are a market for a week.
- T. Nagar, ChennaiTamil NaduRanganathan Street in the weeks before: the densest shopping crowd in the south.
- SrirangamTamil NaduThe Lord receives new clothes and his oil bath like any householder, and the Azhvars are honoured as his sons-in-law.
Across India
- AyodhyaUttar PradeshThe north's Diwali, the next evening, for the return of Rama.
- PanajiGoaEffigies of Narakasura are burned before dawn on this same morning.
- AmritsarPunjabBandi Chhor Divas at the Golden Temple.