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Next: about 14 Apr 2027

Puthandu (Tamil New Year)

The Tamil new year in mid April, with a kolam at the door, temple visits and new silk or cotton sarees.

Puthandu is the traditional Tamil new year. The calendar and day migrated from Indian Tamils to Sri Lanka and southeast Asia in the 1st millennium CE.
Photo: Amila Tennakoon, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What is worn for Puthandu (Tamil New Year)

Puthandu is the Tamil new year, kept in mid April on the first day of the month of Chithirai, which begins when the sun enters Aries by the sidereal count. It is a state holiday in Tamil Nadu and is also kept in Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia by Tamils. Houses are cleaned, a fresh kolam is drawn in rice flour at the door, and families visit temples, with a feast in the middle of the day. New clothes are an old part of the day, and women wear a new saree, in silk or in cotton, with a Kanchipuram or an Arani silk as the dressier choice. The date is usually 14 April, and in some years 13 April.

Also part of it, and being written: Kanchipuram sari (Tamil Nadu's heavy silk saree, the festive standard.), Arani (Light silk of the Arani area in Tamil Nadu.).

About this page

Written by the EveryPallu desk with AI assistance. Background: "Puthandu" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

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