Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Thaipusam
Summary
Thaipusam or Thaipoosam (தைப்பூசம்) is a Tamil Hindu festival celebrated on the full moon of the Tamil month of Thai (January/February), usually coinciding with Pushya star, known as Pusam in Tamil.
The festival commemorates the legend of the goddess Parvati offering her son, Murugan (Kartikeya) a vel (a divine spear) so he could vanquish the asura Surapadman and his brothers. It is also commonly believed that Thaipusam marks Murugan's birthday; though some other sources suggest that the date of Vaikasi Visakam, which falls on the Vaikasi month (May/June), is Murugan's birthday.
Thaipusam is mainly observed in countries where there is a significant presence of Tamil community such as India, Malaysia, Mauritius, as well as other places where ethnic Tamils reside as a part of the local Indian diaspora population such as Canada, Singapore, South Africa, the United States, Réunion, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica and the other parts of the Caribbean.
It is a national holiday in many countries such as Malaysia and Mauritius. In India its a state holiday in Tamil Nadu. In certain states of Malaysia and in the nations of Mauritius, it is also a government and a bank holiday.
The name Thaipusam is a portmanteau of the name of the Tamil month of Thai, and the name of the star, Pusam, the Tamil rendering of the Sanskrit Pushya. This particular star is at its highest point during the festival. The name of the star is rendered Pooyam in Malayalam.
According to the Kanda Puranam, the Tamil iteration of the Skanda Purana, three asuras (a race of celestial beings) named Surapadman, Tarakasuran, Singamukhan performed austerities to propitiate Shiva. The deity granted them various boons, including the ability to conquer the three worlds, as well as immortality. The three brothers subsequently oppressed the celestial deities known as the devas and started a reign of injustice and tyranny in their respective realms. When the deities pleaded Shiva for his assistance, he manifested five additional heads, and a divine spark emerged from each of them.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.