ತಿರುವಾತಿರ | Thiruvathira

Thiruvathira is a festival of Kerala, kept on the day of the nakshatra Thiruvathira, which is Ardra, in the Malayalam month of Dhanu, while the sun is in Dhanus. It falls near the full moon, in December or early January. It belongs to Shiva and Parvati, and it is above all a festival of women: married women keep it for the long life of their husbands and the good of the family, and unmarried women for a good marriage.

The story

More than one account is given, and they are held together rather than chosen between. The day is said to be the one on which Shiva appeared before Parvati, pleased with the long penance she had kept to have him as her husband, and granted her wish. It is also called Shiva’s birthday. A third account connects it with Kamadeva, burned to ashes by Shiva’s anger and brought back to life, and sees in the women’s devotion the power that restored him. Shiva, Parvati and Kamadeva are all remembered in the worship of the day.

How it is kept

The women rise before dawn and bathe, traditionally in the pond, and keep a fast that leaves out rice and heavy food. In place of rice the meals are made from what the season brings in Dhanu, tubers and plantain. Ettangadi, a mixture of roasted or boiled tubers, elephant foot yam, colocasia, purple yam and koorka among them, with raw and ripe plantain, cowpea and jaggery, is traditionally made on the eve, offered before a lamp and shared among the women on plantain leaves. Thiruvathira puzhukku, a stew of tubers, and koova payasam, a sweet of arrowroot, jaggery and coconut milk, are the other foods of the day. Betel leaf with areca nut is chewed as the celebration begins.

In the evening the women gather round a lit nilavilakku and dance the Thiruvathirakali, moving in a circle, clapping in rhythm and singing songs of Shiva and Parvati, one woman leading each line and the rest answering. At midnight the dashapushpam, ten sacred plants gathered beforehand, are worn in the hair while the name of Shiva is chanted. A woman’s first Thiruvathira after her marriage is her poothiruvathira, kept with particular care.

Thiruvathira and Arudra Darshanam

Tamil Nadu keeps the same nakshatra in the same solar month, which it calls Margazhi, as Arudra Darshanam. The night is the same; the observance is not. In Kerala the day is kept largely at home and among women, for Parvati’s devotion and for married life, with the fast, the dance and the flowers. In Tamil Nadu it is a temple festival of Shiva as Nataraja, centred on the abhishekam before dawn and the darshan at Chidambaram. Anudina lists the two separately, so that each appears with its own name and its own region. Both fall in the month of the sun in Dhanus that opens with Dhanurmasa.

Which day Anudina gives

Anudina gives Thiruvathira on the day on which the nakshatra Ardra is running at sunrise while the sun is in Dhanus, which is how the Malayalam almanacs give it. The nakshatra comes round every twenty-seven days or so and the sun stays in a sign a little longer than that, so Ardra can now and then fall twice in the month. When it does, Anudina keeps the one nearer the full moon, the night the festival belongs to. In 2026 it falls on 24 December, the same day as Arudra Darshanam.

It is a Kerala observance. Anudina shows it under the South Indian custom, and under the North Indian custom only when “Show festivals of other regions too” is turned on.