Weren't they great planners

I am always fascinated to find why these rituals and functions and do’s and don’t’s came into being. In the journey of discovering and analyzing the same, I stumbled on the negatives surrounding the month of Aadi in the tamil, Aashadam in telugu calendar and karkitaka maasam in kerala not sure what it is called in hindi(?)

Aadi, the month you abstain from any new endeavors, shifting of residence and many more things, though there could have been many reasons

the month Aadi/ashadam usually falls after the summer solstice when the sun moves from the northern hemisphere to the southern and hence it is called as the dakshinayana punya kalam. It is usually said that the uttarayana punya kalam is for the Gods and the daskhinayana punya kalam depicts the shakti. (??) or it could be that dakshinayanam is considered to be night for the gods.

The month is considered very holy with people praying to the Goddess and the forefathers. You start with the Aadi Pandigai, which is the first day of the month, Aadi pooram the birthday of Aandaal, Varalakshmi pooja (the prayer to the goddess for bestowing of all desires on the family mostly conducted by the married women.)
Aadi Amavasai to remember and pay our respects to our ancestors, Aadi perukku, is the 18th day of the month, which usually falls the midst of a heavy rainfall and indicates to the farmers to start their sowing. In tamil there is a saying aadi perukku thedi vidhai..(meaning sowing on the day of aadi perukku..) . Apart from this the Tuesdays, the Fridays and the Sundays are all important in this month. Some communities do offer milk to the snakes..(infact the idea of this blog was because of watching people doing this)

But, there is an underlying theme behind all the celebrations. This month is supposed to be a lean month for farmers (who formed major part of the population earlier) with the harvest completed in Thai and all the grains used till the month of Aadi.
So no major celebrations were done.

Houses were not built in this month, a possible reason could be the fierce winds that are there in this month, and those were the days of thatched and tile roofs. I still presume that the same reason valid, to restrict shifting to a new house, if there was a leak or some major flaw, rectifying it during the rains and the winds was not possible.

Interestingly followed practice in many villages, amman thiruvizha , and the kodiyetham(flag hoisting) marking the start of festivities in the goddess temples and people from the village or even visitors cannot leave the village until the end of the poojas/functions of the temple. The scientific reason could be with the change of seasons, and the monsoons, by placing a restriction on the people, you are containing any contagious diseases from spreading.

In many communities, a newly married bride was separated and sent to her parents’ place to ensure she did not conceive in this month, not that it is inauspicious, but for the simple reason that a child conceived in this month would be born in the month of april/may which would be the hottest and would be very tiring on the mother and the child. Infact, some of the proverbs might have happened to instill the same fear. though astrology claims that the child born in these months could be bringing ill-luck for the father..

But according to me the master stroke of the whole planning is the distribution of koozhu, a liquid broth in almost all the goddess temples during this month, ensuring that every mouth was fed, and no dent to the self respect of a person, as this month is a very lean period for the people who depend on work in the fields and due to heavy rains are forced to stay at home.

most of the thought process of our elders had a theme, systematic approach to issues, though the actual reasons have got diluted as they passed from generation to generation and sometimes we blindly follow the same.

Though today Aadi is synonymous with sales and discounts, still the fervor that belongs to this month has not diminished and the proof is to the poojas that are conducted in many temples and homes.


Weren’t our ancestors great planners??

 

Dear friends,

Thanks for joining me and acknowledging that our forefathers's were great planners and there was lot of thought process into each of their ideas/rituals.

will reply to each of you individually later as am little down with flu.

thanks once again dearies.