Padhinettaam perukku. Festival and Menu

The Festival

The next festival in tamizh calendar is Padhinettaam Perukku. The 18th day in the Aadi month falls on 3 rd of august in the English calender.

As I have mentioned earliar all festivals are associated with agriculture. After germination and transplantation, lot of water is required to irrigate the rice crop which is the staple food.

The tamizh culture developed in the fertile plains of the cauvery river. As the rains increased the volume of water in the river increased day by day and overflowed on Padhinettaam perukku.

To celebrate the gift of nature padhinettaam perukku is the festival.

Menu

The menu for this festival is always variety rice.

1. Thengai saadam (coconut rice)
2. Elumichai saadam (lemon rice)
3. Puliyodarai (tamarind rice)
4. Ellu saadam (Sesame rice)
5. Sarkaraipongal
6. Bagalabath (Curd rice)

All recipes will be posted in the next 3 days.

From my memories :Viji sriram has added her lively childhood memories of Padhinetaam Perukku.

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As a native of Srirangam, I still remember how we enjoy this festival. On the festival day my grandma used to wake up early, prepare all the kalanda saadams, as told by latha with some sweet, since schools will be given holiday, we all will play in the morning and when evening comes, we pack off all the kalanda sadam, fried papads and will go to ammamandapam (banks of river cauvery) for a picnic, have a great time there watching the water from the river bank, playing till we get tired and after that we will have our food which will be extermely delicious.

Also people will float ahal vilakku (Mud lamps with cotton wicks and til oil) in that cauvery water. A belief is there that if the vilakku stays lit for a long time all our dreams will get fulfilled. Newly married couple will change their sacred thread (thali kayuru) with a new one , after praying to goddess cauvery. The whole of ammamandapam will be flooded with people.

Nowadays we all live in flats and do not have the time to celebrate like this. Atleast still we are having the same menu of kalanda saadam on this 18th day of aadi month.

Though we do not live in the river banks any more, we can still organise a picnic on a holiday around this time to celebrate the prosperity brought by the rains.

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