Puthandu is the Tamil New Year’s Day.
It is a public holiday in Sri Lanka and in India, it is a public holiday in many regions.
The Tamil year starts on April 14th in the Gregorian calendar. It is similar to the Vernal Equinox which is usually celebrated on or around March 21st. The date differs due to the position of the Tamil region in the northern hemisphere and some ancient and impressive astronomical observations involving the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn.
Though not purely a religious festival, Puthandu does hold special significance to Hindus as it is said to be the day that the Hindu god of creation, Lord Brahma, started creation.
Tamil New Year’s Day is celebrated on the first day of Chithirai – the first month in the Tamil Calendar and is also known as Varusha Pirappu.
To mark the new year, everyone in the country celebrates by wearing light golden clothes and turning towards the east.
The rituals include milk rice mixed with curd as well as sweetmeats with undu flour at specific propitious times of the morning.
In Sri Lanka, the day is the time of the traditional first ploughing of the ground to mark the start of the new agricultural season.
It is a tradition that the first financial transaction of the year is when elders give gifts of money to the unmarried young, as a sign of good luck.