Pandya Nadu · Eastern Coastal Plains
Festivals
| Festival | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Chithirai Thiruvizha | The Tamil month of Chithirai, April–May, over a month | The largest festival in the region and, structurally, two festivals joined. The first fortnight belongs to Meenakshi — her coronation, her digvijaya conquest of the directions, and her marriage to Sundareswarar. The second belongs to Kallazhagar, the Vishnu of Alagar Koyil, who rides from his hill to attend his sister's wedding, arrives late, learns it is over, and enters the Vaigai instead in front of a crowd that fills the riverbed. Tradition credits Thirumalai Nayak with merging a Shaiva festival and a Vaishnava one that had fallen in different months — the effect, whatever the intent, is a single event that both communities own. |
| Thaipusam at Palani | Thai, January–February | Pilgrims walk from across the region carrying kavadi, many of them for several days, converging on the Palani hill. The road is lined with free feeding stations run by villages along the route. |
| Jallikattu at Alanganallur | Mattu Pongal, mid-January | Bulls released one at a time through a narrow gate into a lane of participants who attempt to hold the hump. Alanganallur's event draws the largest crowd and the largest entry of bulls. |
| Aadi Thiruvadipooram, Srivilliputhur | Aadi, July–August | Andal's birth star, observed at her own temple with a procession and with the recitation of her verses. The Aadi month is also when the region's temple goddess festivals cluster. |
| Avani Moola Thiruvizha | Avani, August–September | Ten days at the Meenakshi temple re-enacting episodes of the Thiruvilaiyadal, the sixty-four sports of Shiva at Madurai, including the night the god is said to have carried earth for a wage and been beaten for idling. |
| Float Festival (Teppam) | Thai, January–February | Processional images floated on a decorated raft around the island shrine in the Vandiyur tank, on the birthday of Thirumalai Nayak, who built the tank. |
| Panguni Uthiram | Panguni, March–April | Kavadi and firewalking at Murugan temples across the region, and a major festival at Thiruparankundram. |
| Deepavali and the Sivakasi season | October–November | Not a regional festival so much as a regional industry. The Virudhunagar cracker towns run at capacity from July, and the whole district's economy is timed to a single festival elsewhere. |
The festival calendar of Pandya Nadu — what is celebrated, when it falls and what happens. (8)