Karthigai Deepam 2025 Date

About Karthigai Deepam

On Karthigai Pournami a giant cauldron of ghee and camphor is lit atop Arunachala hill in Tiruvannamalai, visible for kilometres. It marks the night Shiva appeared as an endless pillar of fire to settle a quarrel between Brahma and Vishnu over who was supreme.

The Tiruvannamalai temple runs a ten-day Brahmotsavam that opens with the flag-hoisting (Dwajarohanam) on Uttaradam nakshatra. On the final day, priests light the Bharani Deepam inside the sanctum around 4 a.m. That same flame is then carried up Arunachala — the hill whose name means 'holy fire hill' — and used to light the Maha Deepam at sunset, as crowds below shout 'Annamalaiyarku Arohara'. A second strand of lore ties the day to Murugan: he was born as six infants in the Saravana pond, each tended by one of the six Krittika star-mothers, until Parvati joined them into the six-faced Aarumugan. In Tamil homes the festival shows up as rows of small clay agal lamps lining doorsteps, balconies and temple walls.