Sharadu Pandigai (March-April)

Sharadu or Charadu Pandigae/Kargal Adai habba/Mooru Dosae Habba

This festival is usually celebrated around March 14 and denotes the beginning of  the Pongani month. On this day three strand yellow thread (twisted cotton yarn) is smeared with turmeric which is called sharadu or charadu. A little flower is knotted into the sharadu like a pendant and loosely worn around the neck by married women and young girls in the Iyengar community. Many women typically wore their mangal sutra (wedding pendant) on this type of a yellow thread/sharadu in the earlier days. Even to this day very traditional women wear their mangal sutra in this fashion. This special day is deemed auspicious by elders to replace the old yellow thread/sharadu with a new yellow thread/sharadu. It is also customary to invite  a couple of married women and offer the sharadu along with tamboola and beget their blessings. This festival also gets its name from a type of dish prepared for this occasion. A sweet dosae made of three layers (the sweet obbatu/poli pooranam/filling is sandwiched between 2 small dosaes) and hence this festival is called "Mooru Dosae Habba" in Karnataka. In Iyer households this festival is called Kardiyan nombu and sweet adai is prepared for the vratam/vow on that day. The yellow thread/sharadu is typically worn for three days and discarded at the base of a plant, roof top or in a body of water, where people cannot step on.