Kaarthigai Deepam - FAQ and JUFAQ

Let's jump right into the definitions here! First the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Kaarthigai Deepam :

The Tamizh version of the festival of lights to celebrate Lord Muruga's (aka Kaarthikeya, Son of Shiva) incarnation in the form of six children. Sometimes coincides with Thiru-Annamalai-Deepam, a large oil light lit on top of the Annamalai Hill for Lord Shiva.

When :

Tamizh month of Kaarthigai, full moon day

How long :

3 days.

What is done :

Light earthern lamps, burst crackers, eat rice crispy treats also known as "pori urundais" (Pori - puffed rice, urundai - ball).

On the second day, there is a general house clean up. When I was four five years old, I remember my grandma calling the second day "kuppai Karthigai" (Kuppai literally means Garbage). She would clean up the house and put lights in the corners.

The third day was "pee kaarthigai" (pee literally means feces in Tamizh!). This was a day for cleaning the bathrooms, drains, and there were lights pretty much everywhere in the house. We also used to light the lamps with neem oil on the last day. The neem oil has significant medicinal value (I read an article where Americans are trying to create Neem tree farms in Texas so they can harvest neem oil for medicines!). Maybe it was our ancestors way of disinfecting the house by burning lamps with neem oil.

Here are some pictures from yesterday..

Now for the JUFAQ ( Jr.'s Unanswerable Frequently Asked Questions).

We were at the Livermore temple yesterday. Lord Muruga's idol was dressed up with a golden crown, golden Vel(spear)and lots of flowers. I wanted to meditate for a few minutes.

Jr. came sat next to me and says :

Jr. : Why is he all dressed up? Is it his birthday today?
Me : Yes.
Jr. : How old is he today?
Me : He is one more year older today...
Jr. : Is he a kid?
Me : Yeah (the idol here does make the god look like a kid)
Jr. : which school does he go to?
Me : (at this point, losing all hopes of any meditation). He goes to a special school for god babies.

there were more questions, no answers and we started back from the temple.

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More Paavadais and Golus

The Golu season is over. One last frantic round of visiting friends, dressing up and sumptuous treats.

The Saraswati Pooja / Durga pooja is done and now we await the next big one..

Diwali, Deepavali, Deeparaya, Lakshmi Pooja, Festival of Lights or whatever else it goes by!

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Navarathri

Previous posts on the Golu found here and here..

Last year, we did not cover as many golus and we did not have pictures. This year with the little ones both at an age where they take great pleasure in dressing up, the weekend was hectic.

Here are some snaps from the various Golus we visited and the little ones in all their finery..

They would change their dress between visiting different golus!

The visits will keep going till next saturday!

Lord Ganesha has yet another birthday!!

Today was Ganesh Chaturthi (Lord Ganesha's birthday) which is celebrated with gusto by Hindus everywhere. In case you are new to this blog and are wondering why an English Lord's birthday should get such prominence, Ganesha is the Elephant headed god revered by the Hindus as the remover of obstacles!

I have written about Ganesh Chaturthi in the past here and here. As you can see, it is always a celebration if it happens to fall on a weekend!! As you can also see, this blog is getting older (3 posts on Ganeshas birthday!!).

I did do the pooja with everyone in the house helping out, especially the little ones.

Jr. started the day by explaining to the little one :

"Today is pulliyar ummachi's birthday. But he doesnt like cake! We make Indian food and some special food. kozhukkattai(dumplings) irukkum. apparom Roti Irukkum (there will be Rotis), Vadai irukkum (there will be vadai's) ... " and she went on to mention a lot of Indian good eats that are not specific to this function! I captured the tail end of this explanation on video. Well, there is always next year for a better secret video.

Here are the photos from this years function, and yes, the eats were really yummy!

This year also saw another change. Jr., who was so far a consumer of Kozhukattais, decided to help out with the manufacturing process.

I saw that and got all mushy!! My girls are growing up, and it won't be long before they join their mom in lowering their estimate of my IQ. I pray to Lord Ganesha to keep my IQ constant in the eyes of my little girls going forward.

The festival season is here, ladies and gentlemen...

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