Karthigai Deepam in Chennai: The Festival of Lamps, Dates and Where to See It

What Karthigai Deepam is

Karthigai Deepam (கார்த்திகை தீபம்) falls in the Tamil month of Karthigai (November–December) on the day the full moon meets the Krittika star — the six sisters of the Pleiades who, in the story, nursed the infant Murugan. It is a Shiva festival, a Murugan festival and a household festival at once. The central image is the lamp: Shiva appearing as an endless column of light that Brahma and Vishnu could not measure, remembered today by the great fire lit on the hill at Tiruvannamalai and by millions of small clay lamps on doorsteps across Tamil Nadu.

Tamil literature refers to a lamp festival in this month more than 2,000 years ago, which is why Chennai families will tell you, with some pride, that this is the older festival of lights.

At home: the lamps

At dusk, families set out rows of agal vilakku — small clay lamps filled with sesame oil or ghee — along the doorstep, the balcony rail, the windows and the compound wall. Kolam designs are drawn in the morning and the lamps are placed on them in the evening. Many homes light lamps for three evenings running, and the day is also treated as the birthday of Murugan, so Murugan images get a special lamp. Walk through the lanes of Mylapore, Mandaveli, Triplicane or West Mambalam after 6 pm and the effect is complete: no neon, no fireworks, just hundreds of small flames and the smell of sesame oil.

Lamps, oil and cotton wicks are sold at every corner shop and in heaps on the Mada streets from a week before; a dozen lamps cost very little.

Temples in Chennai

• Kapaleeshwarar Temple, Mylapore — thousands of lamps are lit around the tank and along the temple walls; the gopuram reflected in the tank among the flames is one of the city’s great sights.
• Marundeeswarar Temple, Thiruvanmiyur, and Thyagaraja Temple, Tiruvottiyur — both ancient Shiva temples with large lamp displays and a hilltop-style deepam lit on the tower.
• Vadapalani Murugan and Kundrathur Murugan — as Murugan’s star day, the Murugan temples are especially busy.
• Madhya Kailash, Adyar, and the many small Shiva shrines of Mylapore are good for a quieter evening.

In the days after the main festival, many Shiva temples hold a further lamp evening when every lamp in the temple is lit at once; ask locally for the date, as it varies by temple.

Tiruvannamalai and the Maha Deepam

The festival’s heart is Arunachaleswarar Temple at Tiruvannamalai, about 190 km south-west of Chennai (four to five hours by road). After ten days of festival, at around 6 pm on Karthigai Deepam day, the Maha Deepam — a huge copper cauldron of ghee with a cloth wick — is lit on the summit of the Arunachala hill, 800 metres up, and burns for days. Below, a crowd estimated in the millions circles the hill (the 14 km girivalam) through the night. It is extraordinary and extremely crowded: if you go, book a room months ahead, arrive the day before, and expect to walk. Day-trippers from Chennai can watch the lighting from the town and drive back late. Hotels in Tiruvannamalai sell out; Vellore (about 85 km away) and Gingee are fall-back bases.

What to eat

Karthigai’s signature snack is pori urundai: puffed rice bound into balls with hot jaggery syrup, made in big batches on the day. Alongside come appam (small jaggery-rice fritters), adai and sweet pongal, with payasam at the evening puja. Sweet shops sell pori urundai by the bag in the week before, but the home-made ones are better.

Tips for visitors

• Timing: the lamps go out at dusk, around 5:45–6:15 pm in late November. Be in a residential neighbourhood or at Kapaleeshwarar by 5:30 pm.
• Join in. A hotel balcony or a friend’s doorstep with a row of lamps is entirely in the spirit; nobody minds.
• Monsoon: late November is the wettest part of Chennai’s year. Lamps are lit under eaves and in windows if it rains; Tiruvannamalai’s hill fire goes ahead regardless.
• Diaspora planning: Karthigai Deepam comes about two weeks after Deepavali and a few weeks before the Margazhi music season begins, so a late-November arrival catches both. See our calendar for the exact dates.
• Photography: the temple tank at Kapaleeshwarar is the picture; inside the sanctum, cameras are not allowed.

Frequently asked questions