Monday, May 12, 2008

APIIT Tamil New Year Puthandu Celebrations 2008

Indian Tamil New Year Celebrations APIIT milk

The Tamil New Year and Vaisakhi was celebrated in APIIT last month. In recent years, the college never failed in giving the international experience to all the students and staffs with cultural and festival celebrations from different parts of the world. The local and international students and staffs will work together to make the celebrations happen.

Puthandu, or better known as Tamil New Year, is the celebration of the first day of the new Tamil year by people of Tamil origin. It follows the Tamil Calendar, which is used in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry in India, and by the Tamil population in Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka.
The celebration generally fall on April 12, April 13 or April 14. People greet each other on this day by saying இனிய தமிழ் புத்தாண்டு நல்- வாழ்த்துக்கள் (Iniya Tamizh Puthaandu Nalvazthukkal).


Vaisakhi (Punjabi: ਵਸਾਖੀ, vaisākhī, also known as Baisakhi) is an ancient harvest festival in Punjab, which also marks beginning of a new solar year, and new harvest season.

(Source: Wikipedia-Puthandu Wikipedia-Vaisakhi)

Tamil New Year Cooking Milk with claypot

This was how they cook the sweet milk outside the campus building.

Punjabi Sikh Emcee for Vaisakhi

The Punjab Emcee kicked off the celebrations with his energetic speech.

Honouring the guests with the golden necklace

Dr. Parmjit Singh and Prof. Les was honoured and welcomed by the Tamil people.

Lighting the kuthuvilaku

Dr. Parmjit and Prof. Les lighting the Kuthuvilaku(The brass light stand) signifying a new year to come.

Vaisakhi Chant

The ceremony followed by Sikhs chanting with the Kirpan.

Sneak Peak Tamil New Year

There were a lot of interesting performances and celebrations happened on that day. Stay tune for more...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow I've never attended such a celebration before. It sounds really cool! I love getting in touch with new, fresh aspect of a culture. It's sad that I don't know much about the Indian culture - I should start trying to understand their festivals. The only ones I know are Thaipusam =.= lol!

Nice photos anyway, and the last one is getting me curious and interested what you have up your sleeves for the next update :)

Anonymous said...

Exciting activities at your campus as usual. I wouldn't have stayed for this one though, but anything is better than nothing right?

BYE!

Anonymous said...

Your photos look really good, especially the earthen pot on the fire.
I know the next post will be hot because i know the next photo is freakin' amazing!!!!!
(THEY SHOULD BE PAYING YOU!)