सनातन पुस्तकालय Sanatan Cultural Library

The full moon has always been read as a sign of fullness of grace — the mind, which tradition links to the moon, is at its brightest and calmest, making pournami a natural day for worship and inner discipline. In Tamil Nadu the day is especially associated with Shiva and with Ambal, the Divine Mother, whose crescent-crowned iconography ties her closely to the lunar cycle. Certain pournamis carry their own festivals: Chitra Pournami honours Chitragupta, the recorder of deeds; Vaikasi Visakam marks Murugan's birth star falling near the full moon; and the pournami of Karthigai leads into the great festival of lamps. The most celebrated expression of the vratam is at Tiruvannamalai, where tradition holds that walking around the Arunachala hill — Shiva in the form of fire — on the full-moon night confers the merit of countless pilgrimages. Lakhs of devotees keep this Girivalam month after month.

Those observing Pournami Vratam rise early, bathe, and take a sankalpa (vow) to fast for the day. Most keep a fast from sunrise until moonrise, taking only water, milk or fruit; a stricter nirjala fast is kept by some, while others simply avoid grain. The evening is the heart of the observance: the home shrine or temple deity is offered lamps, flowers, abhishekam and naivedyam, and the fast is broken after sighting the risen full moon and offering it prayer. Many Tamil families perform Satyanarayana pooja on pournami evening, reading the katha with neighbours and sharing the sapadu prasadam. At Tiruvannamalai, devotees walk the roughly fourteen-kilometre Girivalam path barefoot through the night, pausing at the lingam shrines along the way, chanting Annamalaiyarukku arohara. The vratam asks for no elaborate materials — its essence is restraint, remembrance and an unhurried evening of worship.

This is an easy vratam to keep in a Canadian home, since it needs only the almanac date and a simple evening pooja. Check the site's calendar for the pournami tithi — the full moon can fall a calendar day earlier in Ottawa than in India because of the time difference, so go by the local tithi rather than an Indian listing. Fast through the working day at whatever level is sustainable — fruit and milk is the common middle path — and in the evening light a lamp, offer flowers and a sweet, and break the fast after moonrise; in an Ottawa winter the moon rises conveniently early. Families who long for Girivalam often follow Tiruvannamalai live streams on pournami night, or simply do pradakshina of their home shrine while chanting.