puthandu vazthukal

… that is ‘happy new year’ in tamil.

picture from greetings123

that’s right. today is tamil new year. many people mistaken ‘deepavali’ as tamil new year. deepavali in fact is a religious festival and not a new year for the tamil as many believed. it seems that many of my tamil christian friends complained that whenever deepavali comes, people will think they are celebrating it and will wish them happy deepavali or say “oh its your new year. happy deepavali”. they get tired of explaining they don’t celebrate deepavali and their new year is in april.

yep, tamil christians do celebrate today as new year. i’m quite confused though. what is the tamil new year known as? all along i thought it is vasakhi but in the star paper dated 11 april, it stated vasakhi is the sikh new year, and varshipirappu as the hindu new year (all fall same date). in the chennaibest site, though it mention the sikh new year as naba barsha, and not vasakhi. ahh… i got it… is the tamil new year known as sinhala? when i was googling for tamil new year, i spy the word sinhala, so i guess this must be it. it sound very foreign and unfamiliar to me. as i said all along, i only know vasakhi.

and to add to all these, the tamils like to celebrate ponggol too, which is the harvest festival to them. it is quite a big event for the tamil catholics in our church since i notice every year, they plan some activities for ponggol. what is the story behind ponggol, i wonder.