Thaipusam Festival of Tamil Nadu
Name of Festival : Thaipusam Festival
Major Territory of Celebration
Thaipusam Festival is celebrated in Tamil Nadu
Time of celebration (Months)
This festival falls in Tamil month of Thai (January/February) on the full moon.
About Festival
Thaipusam Festival is a Hindu festival and celebrated mostly by the Tamil community.This festival in also celebrated where Tamil community is a minority, such as Singapore and Malaysia. In Malayalam language Thaipusam Festival is known as Thaipooyam or Thaippooyam.
This fesival is celebrated in the temples and dedicated to Kartikeya or Mariamman , the son of Shiva and Parvati where trenches of burning coal are laid out for the devotees to walk over. Murugan is also known as Subramaniam, Shadanana, Sanmukha,Skanda and Guha. People believed that on this day, Goddess Parvati presented a lance to Lord Murgan to vanquish the demon army of Tarakasura and combat their evil deeds.
History Thaipusam Festival :
Skanda or Murugan was created during one of the battles between the Asuras and the Devas.Devas was helpless to defet the Asuras so they went to Loard Shiva .Shiva granted their request by creating the mighty warrior, Skanda, out of his own power or Achintya Shakti.
On the time of festival people perform the Kavadi Attam dance to celebrated the ceremonial worship of Murugan.
On Thaipusam day, devotees of Lord Murugan offer him fruits and flowers of yellow or orange color becouse these are his favorite colors and also adorn dresses of the same color. On this day many devotees bear water,milk, fruits and carry them on their shoulders to various Murugan temples, far and near.
Palani Periyanayaki temple which is a famous temple dedicated to Muruga, Thaipusam is celebrated as a ten day festival with great fervor. Thousands of devotees flock to Palani and attend kavadi. During this festival many strange traditions like the lips pierced with a small spear, drawing of small make shift chariot with its chain hooked into the back of devotees and locking of the mouth with metal ring are performed by the devotees.
