Puthandu Kanni & New Year Puja

Puthandu (Varusha Pirappu) is the Tamil New Year, the first day of the solar month Chithirai. Families begin the year by first seeing auspicious things — fruit, gold, flowers and a mirror — so that the year is full, then worship Vinayaka and the family deity and taste the six-flavoured mango pachadi as a reminder that a year holds sweet and bitter alike.