Karthigai 2023

Last year (2022) Karthigai was on Dec 8th and we celebrated it with my cousin Rohini. The reason I mention it specifically is because, I saw the “Paavai” vilakku (A girl holding a lamp) for the first time at Rohini’s place. It was my maternal grandmother’s lamp that she had given to her eldest son, who happens to be my Mama and Rohini’s father :):).

I fell in love with the paavai vilakku and wanted to get a couple of them. When we went to Kumbakonam around Dec 27th last year I bought a couple of Paavai Vilakku at Anandha Vilas shop. Then we went to Thanjavur where I managed to get a couple more.

Karthigai 2023

As is the tradition in our home, the lamps that were put out on the balcony for Deepavali, were lit everyday till few days after Karthigai. Specifically for Karthigai, we clean all the lamps at home and this year for us the festival was on Nov 27th. It coincided with Gurpurab (Guru Nanak Ji’s birthday) and Kartik Poornima.

The speciality for Karthigai is to make “Pori urundai” which is basically a sweet made using jaggery and puffed rice. Ofcourse many other items are also made, but this time I just made the pori urundai.

We lit all the lamps at home, plus some earthen lamps (mitti ke diye, Mann vilakku). Here are some pics from our home –

A short video of the lamps being lit –

Note – we only light lamps with sesame oil or ghee. We don’t use any other oil for lighting the lamps. The ready-to-use ghee wicks are from cycle.in.

Our festivals are such joyous occasions !! The Naivedyam (prasad) is always according to Ayurvedic principles and thus is not harmful. The festival food is again according to the region, season and only using local produce. Totally fascinating. I have been meaning to write a series of blogs about the festival food in India and how its healthy food.

Hope everyone had a great Karthigai and may our inner lamps also get lit as we light all the lamps at home.

#HinduFestivals