Festivals in Thoothai

Pongal festival is counted amongst the most famous and popular in our village. This harvest festival is mainly celebrated in Thoothai and it has three days duration. The three days of the festival have different names like Bhogi (first day), Pongal (second day) and Mattu Pongal (third day). The villagers decorate their houses with beautiful motifs using rice flower during the Pongal festival. Pongal is actually the name of the sweet made of the first rice. During the second day (Maattu Pongal), our villagers will clean their cattle and decorates them, later they will worship those and provides pongal to them.

One of our notable festivals is the Karthigai Deepam festival. Kaarthigai Deepam is a festival of lights, celebrated in the Tamil month of Kaarthigai. It is celebrated on the full moon day of the Kaarthigai month which coincides with Krithikai star. It is also considered as the extension of the Deepavali festival. In some houses, they double the number of lamps every day from the day of Deepavali and this way, they end up with a number of lamps on the day of Kaarthigai Deepam.

It is celebrated in a special manner in Thiruvannamalai. Lord Shiva asks Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu to find out the exact location of his head and his feet. Since Lord Shiva takes a gigantic form, they are not able to find out anywhere. Then Lord Shiva takes the form of a jyothi (light of fire) on the hill of Thiruvannamali. Therefore, this festival is also known as Annamalai Deepam. Here, a special torch is lighted on the zenith of the hill and it is believed that Lord Shiva's jothi will be visible on this day.

Lord Muruga took the form of six babies in a lake called "Saravana Poigai". On this day, all his six forms were united by Parvathi(his mother) and this way, he had six faces. Special poojas are performed to Lord Muruga.