Āḍi Perukku, also called Pathineṭṭām Perukku, is the monsoon thanksgiving of the Tamil country for the rising of its rivers, above all the Kāverī. As the southwest monsoon swells the east-flowing rivers, families go down to the banks with food and flowers and worship the river as Amman, as Pārvatī, as Kāverī herself. They pray for water, fertility and a good sowing season, and farmers read the new flood as the signal to begin sowing. The custom of honouring the Kāverī's swell is traced as far back as the Cilappatikāram. How the day is fixed: Āḍi Perukku is the fixed 18th civil day of the Tamil solar month Āḍi, the month the sun spends in Karka. Unlike most Tamil festivals, it is not tied to any tithi or nakṣatra. Keep in mind: Because the count runs by the solar month, the day does not move with the moon and falls at nearly the same point of the monsoon every year. Take the date from a Tamil pañcāṅga, since that is the calendar the festival belongs to. This year: The 2027 date shown here is worked out from sunrise at the place you chose, so in another city the same day can fall a day earlier or later. Offerings on the riverbank: Families carry variety rice, sweets, turmeric, flowers and lamps to the bank, spread plantain leaves and offer the food to the new water. A turmeric Gaṇeśa is set up, the river is worshipped as Amman, and lamps are floated on the current. Women and newlyweds: Married women renew the turmeric tāli thread and pray for marital happiness and children. Newlyweds treat their first Āḍi Perukku as especially auspicious, and in some places sprouted navadhānya is offered to the river. Temples, gold and homes without a river: Srirangam and other riverside temples hold special utsavams, and many in Tamil Nadu buy gold in the belief that what is bought on a day of swelling will grow. Where there is no river, the same offering is made at a tank or a well, and in cities a vessel of water is worshipped as the Kāverī at home. Worth remembering: Āḍi Perukku is a thanksgiving for the rising water and is kept separately from Āḍi Amāvāsai, the ancestors' new-moon day in the same month. The Kāverī's festival at its Kodagu source, the Tīrthodbhava of Tulā Saṅkramaṇa, is another day altogether. The Kāverī delta is the best known home of the festival, but every Tamil town honours its own water, whether the Tāmirabharaṇi, the Vaigai, the Bhavāni or the village tank. The rice dishes, the thread, the lamps and whether a new bride is brought home for her first Perukku all vary from town to town and family to family. Follow the way the elders of your own house have kept the day at the water's edge.
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