Thiruvalluvar Day

January 16, 2022

The Thiruvalluvar Day is celebrated on January 15 or January 16. It is celebrated as a part of Pongal (or Sankranti) celebrations in Tamil Nadu. The day is celebrated to honour the contribution of the Tamil poet Thhiruvalluvar to tamil literature. Thruvalluvar wrote Thirukkural.

About Thiruvalluvar

Except from his literary works, nothing else is known about Thiruvalluvar. There is no information about his family, birthplace and religious affiliation. However, a few people believe that Thiruvalluvar lived in Mylapore, Chennai. In 16^th century, Ekambareshwar (Lord Shiva) temple was built in Mylapore. Thiruvalluvar is believed to have born under a tree in the temple complex. Some others believe that he was born in 8^th century. Also, the Tamil Nadu Government built Valluvar Kottam in 1976 for the poet. A 133-foot statue was built in kanniyakumari for Thiruvalluvar.

Thirukkural

Thirukkural has 1330 couplets. They are divided into 133 sections. Each section has ten couplets. The entire text is divided into three parts. They are dharma, artha and kama. Dharma means virtue. Artha means wealth. Kama means love. The couplets define moral living, ideal characteristics of every relationship in the world, moral responsibilities of every human born in the earth.

Valluvar year

The Valluvar year is a type of calendar system. It has additional 31 years. For instance, the Valluvar year of 2022 (Gregorian year) is 2053. It was the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M Karunanidhi who initiated the idea of Valluvar Day. M Karunanidhi is the father of current Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin.

Why is the day celebrated on January 16 or January 17?

The resolution to celebrate Thiruvalluvar Day was passed on January 17, 1935. Kali Sivakannuswami Pillai and Padmashri Suppayya passed the resolution. The first Thiruvalluvar Day was celebrated in May 1935. Later the thiruvalluvar day celebrations began to fade away. In 1954, an Elam scholar of Sri Lanka took efforts to celebrate the day. Today the day is celebrated widely in Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

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