Aadi Perukku - About Aadi Perukku and its importance |

The aadi month falls during the monsoon season and is essentially a thanksgiving to monsoon which fills the rivers – the lifeline of farmers.

The festival is celebrated in full fervor by people residing along the Cauvery River bank. ‘Perukku’ means rising – indicating the rising water in rivers. The festival is essentially a form of Nature worship.

Special food is prepared on this day and family and friends get together and pray for uninterrupted supply of water and a good harvest.

Aadiperukku, otherwise called Padinettam Perukku – is peculiar to the Cauvery delta and is intended to celebrate the rising of the river, which is expected to occur invariably on the 18th day of the solar month, Aadi corresponding to the 2nd or 3rd of August every year.

"Padinettam perukku" - Padinettu signifies eighteen, and Perukku denotes rising. This festival is observed predominately by women in Tamil Nadu. The Aadiperukku, as a water-ritual, celebrated by women is said to honour Nature. People began to worship water in the form of wells, tanks and rivers. It is common among Hindus in India to throw fruits, saffron cloths, etc., when the rivers are in spate purely based on the belief that these rivers are the species of female deities. Similarly every temple has sacred wells and tanks, and water in these resources are considered pure. There are Hindu mythologies that highlight many variations on the theme of primeval water which shows that water culture and civilization represent human interest with sacredness.

This festival is celebrated with great gusto in Tamil Nadu. Mango leaves adorn the door frames and the entrance is decorated with kolams. Women change their yellow thread in their "thali" (Mangalsutra) on this auspicious day. Women of some significant communities in Tamil Nadu carry the custom of adding gold coin(s) to their thali. Some women buy golden ornaments on that day. Cauvery River The festival is more significant in a household where the daughter is newly married.

In Tamil Nadu the newly married daughter is brought to the parent's home by July 15th. It is considered inauspicious for a Tamil family to have the first child (especially if it is to be a boy) born in the month of Chithirai. So the new bride stays in her mother's house for the entire month of Aadi. On Aadi Padhinettu, the son-in-law is invited and given gifts in the form of new clothes, ornaments and sweets. Gold coins will be added to the bride's thali. This custom is strictly observed in most districts of South Tamilnadu