Is Tamil New Year the same as Pongal?

No. Pongal is the harvest festival at the start of the Tamil month of Thai in January, while Tamil New Year falls on the first of Chithirai in April, and Tamil Nadu's holiday order lists them as two separate days.

Why is Tamil New Year on 14 April?

It is the first day of Chithirai, which begins when the sun crosses into Mesha; under the Tamil rule the month starts that same day if the crossing comes before sunset, and the next day if it comes after. That is 14 April in Tamil Nadu's 2026 holiday order.

Did Tamil Nadu once celebrate the New Year in January?

Yes. A Tamil Nadu Act moved it to the first day of Thai in mid January, and that Act stood from February 2008 until it was repealed in September 2011.

Tamil New Year

Next celebratedWednesday, April 14, 2027

Tamil Nadu law put the Tamil New Year in January for more than three and a half years. The statute that undid that is a single sentence naming no date at all, and Puthandu went back to being the first day of Chithirai.

See how to celebrate

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Last updated September 6, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEApril 14

OBSERVED INInternationally

CATEGORYCulture

SUBCATEGORYAsian Heritage

ORIGIN

Historical Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

Not documented

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A custom older than the laws that moved it.

No founding act, founder or establishment record is documented for the Tamil New Year, which falls on the first day of Chithirai, the opening month of the Tamil solar calendar. Tamil Nadu's statutory history on the question runs through an Act of 2008 that moved the official new year to the month of Thai and a later Act that repealed it.

Read the 2011 repeal Actvia prsindia.org

INTRO

A new year restored by deleting the law that moved it

By Tamil Nadu law, the Tamil New Year fell in January for more than three and a half years. A state statute had moved it off Chithirai and onto the first day of Thai, the month that opens with the Pongal harvest festival.

The law that put it back is a single sentence, and April is not in it. Tamil Nadu Act 14 of 2011 repeals the earlier statute and names no day in its place.

What the day is has never depended on either statute. Puthandu is the first day of Chithirai, the opening month of the Tamil solar calendar, and Tamil households wake to a tray of flowers, fruit, betel leaves and coconut set out to be the year's first sight.

ORIGINS

Tamil New Year history

INTRODUCTION

Ask when the Tamil year begins and the honest answer is an instruction rather than a date. The Calendar Reform Committee wrote the Tamil convention down in 1955: when the sun's crossing into Mesha falls before sunset the month begins that day, and when it falls after sunset the month begins the next.

The committee's job was to survey the calendars India was using. It found four separate conventions for turning a single astronomical instant into a single civil date, and the Tamil districts kept their own.

CHAPTER 01

A conference, and a different month

The argument that the Tamil year should open elsewhere is older than any statute. The DMK's own account, reported by The News Minute, is that Tamil scholars led by Maraimalai Adigal met at Pachaiyappa's College in Chennai in 1921 and resolved that the year should begin on the first of Thai.

The disagreement has since been put in plain academic terms. S. Arokianathan, a retired professor of Tamil at Pondicherry University, told Scroll.in that a new year at Pongal time is "based on Tamil culture" while one in April is "based on Sanskrit astrology panchangam".

CHAPTER 02

The state writes it into law

Tamil Nadu acted on that argument in February 2008. Act 2 of 2008 declared, notwithstanding any law, usage or custom to the contrary, that the first day of Thai would be celebrated as the Tamil New Year. It also bound state offices to the new Tamil year and told the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette to print that year beside the English one.

CHAPTER 03

Repealed, in one sentence

The reversal arrived with a bill introduced on 23 August 2011. Its Statement of Objects and Reasons said the Act was "against the customary practice of celebrating the first day of the Tamil month Chithirai as Tamil New Year" and had "caused practical difficulties, resistance and opposition amongst the general public". The government's stated aim was to "restore the time immemorial custom" of the Chithirai date.

The bill was moved by the Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments, and Deccan Herald reported that the assembly passed it by an overwhelming voice vote. What the repeal did not do was name a date. No founding act and no author are documented for the Tamil New Year, and the April reckoning it returned to rests on custom and on the holiday orders the state issues each year.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love Tamil New Year

OFFICIAL

The state dates its own paperwork in a Tamil year

The gazette page that published the repeal is headed Thiruvalluvar Aandu 2042, and the holiday order for 2026 carries a Tamil year too. The calendar this day opens is the one Tamil Nadu dates its own paperwork in.

CIVIC

Offices and banks close for it in Tamil Nadu

Tamil New Year's Day is notified as a public holiday in Tamil Nadu under the Negotiable Instruments Act. The order for 2026 closes state government offices as well as commercial and co-operative banks.

DIASPORA

The calendar travelled with the people

India's Ministry of Tourism describes the day as kept by Tamils from Puducherry to Reunion and Mauritius, well outside Tamil Nadu. The reach is the language's, and no single government sets the date for all of it.

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about Tamil New Year

One sun crossing, dates up to two days apart

Because Bengal, Orissa, Malabar and the Tamil districts each fix the civil day differently, the Calendar Reform Committee wrote that the day of the solar month-beginning "may differ by 1 to 2 days in different parts of India". The astronomy is identical; only the convention moves.

A government committee admitted it did not know

Everywhere else in India the solar month that opens after the vernal equinox is called Vaisakha; in Tamil it is Chittirai. The committee's line on that is "We do not know why Tamil astronomers adopted a different convention".

Two almanacs, two answers to one question

Asked to state the beginning of the year, one Tamil almanac told the committee "Mesha Sankranti" and another told it "13th or 14th April every year". Neither offered a single fixed calendar square.

The 2008 Act made the tenth month the first

Counting from Chithirai, Thai is the tenth of the twelve Tamil solar months and Margazhi is the ninth. The 2008 Act promoted the tenth to opening month and left the ninth closing the year.

The holiday shares its entry with Ambedkar Jayanti

Tamil Nadu's public holiday order for 2026 lists the slot as "Tamil New Year's Day / Dr. B.R.Ambedkar's Birthday" on 14 April. Two observances share one line and one day off.

GOOD TO KNOW

Tamil New Year Around the World

Assam

the same solar crossing is kept as Bahag Bihu

Kerala

the 1955 report lists Vishu on that crossing, in what was then Travancore-Cochin

Manipur

Cheiraoba falls on the same transit

Sri Lanka

the Holidays Act schedules the Sinhala and Tamil New Year's Day and the day before it, separately from Tamil Thai Pongal Day

Singapore

Tamils observe it, but it is not among the public holidays the Ministry of Manpower publishes

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate Tamil New Year

Draw a kolam at the doorway

Tamil homes mark the morning with kolams, patterns laid in coloured rice flour at the house entrance. Mango leaf festoons go up at the door at the same time.

COOK

Cook the six taste midday meal

Akashvani's account of the day describes idli, vada and payasam at breakfast and a six taste meal at lunch. Mangoes, drumsticks and neem flowers go into the recipes.

LEARN

Learn the greeting Tamil families use

The greeting is Puthandu Nalvalthukal, which India's Ministry of Tourism renders as Happy New Year. The same page records people falling at the feet of elders to express their respect.

Follow a temple observance

People visit temples on the day to ask for success in their ventures. Larger temples such as Arulmigu Meenakshi Sundareshwarar in Madurai mark it with special poojas and homams.

READ

Read the two Acts for yourself

Tamil Nadu's 2008 statute and its 2011 repeal are both short enough to read over a coffee. The first one runs to seven sections; the second runs to two.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know Tamil New Year?

1 / 8

Under the Tamil convention, what decides whether a solar month begins on the day of the sankranti?

Answer

In Tamil Nadu, yes: the state notifies Tamil New Year's Day as a public holiday, and its order for 2026 sets it on 14 April. Sri Lanka schedules the Sinhala and Tamil New Year in its Holidays Act, but Singapore does not list it among its public holidays.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

13sources

7primary records

13independently dated

Primary records

PRS Legislative Research2011

The Tamil Nadu Tamil New Year (Declaration) Repeal Act, 2011 (Act 14 of 2011)

The gazette page carrying the one sentence repeal of the 2008 Act.

View source

PRS Legislative Research2008

The Tamil Nadu Tamil New Year (Declaration) Act, 2008 (Act 2 of 2008)

The statute naming the first day of Thai as the Tamil New Year.

View source

PRS Legislative Research2011

L.A. Bill No. 15 of 2011, with Statement of Objects and Reasons

The repeal bill and the government's stated reasons for bringing it.

View source

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research1955

Report of the Calendar Reform Committee

India's 1955 survey of its calendars, with the four regional rules for a solar month.

View source

CommonLII1971

Holidays Act (No. 29 of 1971), First Schedule

Sri Lanka's schedule of public holidays, including the Sinhala and Tamil New Year's Day.

View source

Ministry of Manpower, Singapore2025

Public holidays

Singapore's gazetted public holidays for 2025 to 2027.

View source

Government of Tamil Nadu2025-11-11

G.O.(Ms.) No.708, Public (Miscellaneous) Department: public holidays for 2026

The order listing Tamil New Year's Day among the state's 24 public holidays.

View source

Additional coverage

Ministry of Tourism, Government of India2023

Tamil New Year, Arulmigu Meenakshi Sundareshwarar Temple

The government festivals portal on the day's rituals, dishes and greeting.

View source

Akashvani News2025-04-14

Today is Tamil New Year Puthandu

The public broadcaster on temple visits, festoons and the six taste meal.

View source

Deccan Herald2011-08-23

DMK's Tamil New Year law scrapped

Same day reporting on the assembly's voice vote to repeal the 2008 Act.

View source

Scroll.in2017-04-14

Why does the Tamil New Year change with the ruling party in the state?

Two Tamil studies academics on the Thai and Chithirai disagreement.

View source

The News Minute2017-04-14

Is Tamil New Year really 'Tamil'? Politics of Thai vs Chitirai

The DMK's account of the 1921 scholars' conference in Chennai.

View source

The News Minute2025-11-12

Tamil Nadu govt issues 2026 public holiday list with 24 declared holidays

Reporting on the 2026 holiday order and its 14 April entry.

View source

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