Karthikai Deepam Or Karthikai Vilakku: Another Festival Of Lights

Actually the karthika festival is usually celebrated in Tamil Nadu and Kerala in South India. The word "Karthika" is Malayalam and the word "karthigai" is Tamil. Karthika is a star in the constellation and it has much importance in Hinduism with regards to the worship of the goddess. The festival falls either on a full moon day or the next day.

All festivals are beautiful, because those are times when we gather with everyone to celebrate and enjoy. Lighting the lamps together is such a fun activity to do together, if you pay enough attention while handling fire. The diyas made of clay that are lighted using oil have a beautiful and decorative look, and the lights can also cheer us and brighten up our lives.

Any festival celebrated in the world has some kind of traditional foods associated with it. Karthika festival is also celebrated with some special foods which are shared among family, friends and neighbours. If you normally share sweets and savoury snacks for Diwali, which is also a festival of lights, the foods prepared for Karthika festival is usually more healthy. You can steam root vegetables, mainly yams, tapioca and other locally available root vegetables and serve them with palm sugar or savoury side dishes like sliced green chili peppers mixed with salt and little sesame oil.

Another thing people do on Karthika festival day is decorating their gardens. Banana plant stems are fixed on the ground and then decorate with young coconut leaves. It looks quite beautiful and unique, although I am not sure if it has some meaning with regards to the festival, other than decorative purposes.

In temples, other than using diyas, people also light lamps using sliced, hollow lemon skins. It is believed that lighting lamps using diyas or lemons with oil can bring positive energy and good luck everywhere. Special poojas or rituals are also performed in temples during the day of Karthika festival.

In certain temples, pongala is also performed, when devotees prepare rice or desserts and perform poojas to seek blessings from the goddess.

Below you can see the image of lighted lamps in a temple on Karthika festival.

Oil Diyas that can be used for Karthika, Diwali and other festivals.

Nowadays people also use decorative candles that don't require oil and also flameless LED lamps. You can find these lamps also here.