Karthigai Deepam is the light festival celebrated in Southern India, followed by Diwali. Especially in Tamilnadu, people celebrate Karthigai Deepam as the birthday of Muruga. Most houses glitter in the light of lamps throughout Karthigai month. The light festival falls on the full moon day. Karthigai Deepam is the oldest festival, dating back to 2500 BC.
The ancient Tamil literatures, Ahanananuru, Seevaka Sinthamani, Kar Narpathu, and Natrinai, also have evidence of Karthigai Deepam celebrations. Karnataka, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh states also celebrate Karthigai Deepam in different names. People are about to celebrate this festival with great pomp in 2023 on November 26.
How is Karthigai Deepam celebrated?
People in Tamilnadu celebrate Karthigai Deepam for three consecutive days. They call these three days in different names. All these three days, people clean their houses, draw rangoli, and place lamps on them. They place Agal Vilakku (mud lamp) in the Pooja rooms and different parts of the houses. During worship, people offer sweet Pongal, sweets, and Vada to the deities. They visit the temples and perform Poojas there. Family and friends meet on the occasion of Karthigai Deepam and share their devotion with happiness.
Legend of Karthigai Deepam
There is an interesting legend behind the Karthigai Deepam celebration. According to it, once Brahma and Vishnu fought for supremacy. Shiva appeared in front of them as a huge fire flame to stop their quarrel and teach them a lesson. He told them that whoever could find his feet or head would be considered greater. Brahma took the avatar of a Swan (Anna Paravai) and searched for Shiva’s head, and Vishnu took a boar (Pig) form to explore Shiva’s feet.
Vishnu returned and admitted his failure as he could not trace Shiva’s feet. But Brahma saw a Thazhumbu flower (Screw pine). He concluded that the piece of flower had fallen from the head of Shiva and had been floating for thousands of years. Hence, Brahma falsely proclaimed that he had seen the head of Shiva. However, Shiva realized the situation and pronounced that there would be no temple to worship Brahma and that the Thazhumbu flower would never be used to worship Shiva.
After this incident, Shiva took the form of a hill called the Arunachala Hill, Tiruvannamalai. A giant flame is lit in the Arunachaleswarar temple, Tiruvannamalai, during Karthigai Deepam. It is called the Maha Deepam.
Legend of the Karthigai Star
Legend says that Shiva created six faces with his third eye. They were Tatpurusam, Aghoram, Sadyojatam, Vamadevam, Eesanam, and Adhomukam. Six Karthigai Pengal nurtured these six faces as six babies. Parvati later merged these six babies into one with six heads, the six-faced Muruga (Arumugam). Shiva blessed the six Karthigai Pengal with immortality for their service and pronounced that any worship made to them is equivalent to worshipping Muruga himself.
In Kerala and the South of Tamilnadu, Hindus will pray to the deities for the goodness of their brothers. They will light an elephant lamp (Gajalakshmi Vilakku), which signifies prosperity and wealth. The story behind lighting the elephant lamp (Gajalakshmi Vilakku) is below.
Why do we light an Elephant lamp on Karthigai Deepam?
Once upon a time there lived a King. He had only one daughter. She loved an elephant that grew with her. She considered and treated the elephant as her brother. After her marriage, she missed that elephant very badly.
So, for every Karthigai Deepam occasion, she lit the elephant lamp (Gajalakshmi Vilakku) and prepared tender coconut, elephant leg sized-Milagu Adai, Pori, Adhirasam, Vella Seedai and kept them as Neivedyam for the Karthigai Deepam festival.
Devotees worship the deities on Karthigai Deepam for power and intelligence to win in all their endeavours. Worshipping Shiva and Muruga on Karthigai Deepam can remove our ignorance and bring peace and prosperity to us.
