Karthikai Deepam
Kaarthikai 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.
On this day, people clean the houses. In the evening, they draw
kolams (rangoli) in the front of the house and also place some
lamps on it. The lamps(Agal) are placed in the pooja and
lighted. Then the Deeparathana is done in which the lamps are
moved to different places in the house. The lamps glow all over
the streets on this day. The lamps are arranged near the doors
and windows and also in the balconies. In this way, people of
Tamil Nadu celebrate Kaarthigai Deepam for three days.
This is also the day when sisters pray for the well being of their
brothers and
brothers reciprocate by giving them gifts. The relevance being ,
Lord Muruga
also known as Skanda or Shanmukha or Karthik was raised by
six young girls
called Karthikai damsels like their own baby brother. The story
goes as follows.
Soora Padman and Tharakasura were brothers who were
terrorising the Devas. Unable to bear their cruelty anymore, the
Devas requested Lord Parameswara to save them from the
brothers. Lord Siva opened his Third Eye - the one seen in his
forehead (normally, it is believed that he opened it very rarely) -
to emit six sparks. These sparks were carried by Agni, Vayu
and the Devas to the Ganga and Ganga in turn carried them to
Saravana Poigai, a stream where it is believed that the fire
sparks took the shape of six male babies, cradled by lotus
flowers that floated in the stream.
Six young girls (Karthigai Pengal), who saw the babies floating
in the river,
took them and reared them till Goddess Parvathi came there
and fondly
hugged the six babies to her bosom. The six babies coalesced
to form into
a single child with six faces and twelve hands. And that is how
Lord Shanmukha (literally meaning ‘six faces’) was born to save
the Devas.
When the appropriate time came, Skanda got himself ready to
fight
Soora Padman and his clan, finely equipped with arms.Above
all, Goddess
Parvathi gave Him the Sakthi Vel with which Subrahmanya
fought the Asuras. Shiva expressed his gratitude to the six girls
by making them six karthikai stars.