Thiruvathira Festival in Kerala...

Thiruvathira kali

Ardha-Nareeshwaran

Today is Thiruvathira . Being away from our native town, I missed the celebrations in our place. We, as a group of women, used to celebrate Thiruvathira at the temple auditorium in our place. To remind the day just thought of posting in my blog about Thiruvathira, the important festival of women in Kerala.
Thiruvathira is the birthday of Lord Shiva. It falls in the Malayalam month 'Dhanu'. Dhanu  spreads from mid December to mid January. Thiruvathira also falls on the full moon day. It is believed that on this day, the Goddess Parvathy finally met Lord Shiva after her long penance and Lord Shiva took her as equal partner. Both Shiva and Parvathy present this ideal to devotees in the form of Ardha-Nareeshwara (half female and half male form).
In Kerala, along with Onam and Vishu, Thiruvathira is also important. It is largely a festival of women. Both unmarried and married women fast for good husbands and for blessed married  lives respectively. Rice foods are abstained during the fast. The typical meal during the fast includes cooked broken wheat and the special Thiruvathira dish known as Thiruvathira puzhukku. It is a delicious dish of tubers such as Colocassia, elephant yam, Chinese potato, sweet potato with long beans and raw plantain fruit cooked with a thick paste of freshly grinded coconut. The dessert is arrow root pudding, made of arrow root powder, jaggery, coconut milk and ghee.
Pathirappoochoodal is a popular custom on the day, meaning wearing of flowers at midnight followed by performing Thiruvathirakali at the central courtyard with the picture of Lord Shiva placed in the centre. Flowers, coconut flower bunch, bananas, jaggery, coconut, are offered to the deity on banana leaf. This can be vary a little according to locality.A nilavilakku, traditional lamp made of brass is decorated and lightened. Then the women in a circle around the deity get ready for Thiruvathira kali. The first Thiruvathira after the marriage of a girl is very special and known as Poothiruvathira. The function is conducted at the house of the newly weds and will be grand.
Thiruvathira kali is performed by women on the day of Thiruvathira to the support of Thiruvathira songs telling the stories of lovesick Parvathy, her longing and atonement for Lord Shiva's affection and Shiva's strength and power.  The Thiruvathira kali spreads the message of joy and also illustrates the feelings of a married woman towards her dearest and of the unmarried woman longing for a good husband.