Customs & Traditions of Tamilians

[Suguna Kannan]

I strongly feel that as we Tamilians travel the World over many of the customs and traditions are getting lost. Why don't we refresh our memories about those on these pages.
To start with I would like to know what are the different methods used to remove the evil eye or do Drishti parikaram?

[pavalamani pragasam]

Glad to see you after a long time, Suguna!I do agree our customs and traditions are being lost and am verrrrry sad about it!:( The foremost grievance is in lifestyle changes in our healthy eating habits/recipes!
Being a rational being(?!)I do not encourage superstitions and blind beliefs( but I do have inescapable sentiments-irrational- on many things!:noteeth:). Hence the concept of 'bad eye' is not a serious concern for me- I often pooh pooh it! But there is no denying that it is very much belived by many.
From general knowledge let me list the many practices done by the elders in my family(esp my maternal grandmother):
1.red chilly being rounded thrice round the head of possible victim of bad eye and thrown into fire.
2. camphor rounded round the head and burnt on the doorstep.
3. sweeping the house and gathering the trash(kaal maN) making it a small parcel and rounding round the head and throwing it in the street.(Done regularly on the 1st few days after first-born was born after the last visitor had gone!!!)
4. taking a 3-pronged kaLLi kuchi(green), burning 3 oils(cloth bits drenched) in the three prongs' ends and rounding the head and throwing away in muchanthi(this was done when my grandma got worried about the teenage pimples on my face!!!:noteeth:- how I miss that tender care of a loving relative!)
5.netti muRiththal-cracking the fingers after drawing them flouringly from the person's temples!( a daily routine I did when I finished plaiting my schoolgoing daughter's thick hair into rettai jadai before going to school!!!!!! Tho' I had no blind belief about the practice it gave both of us a very good feeling and bonding!!!!)
6.asking the 'affected person' to spit on the item to be thrown away after rounding off the head.
7.putting a thurumbu like bit of sedi kuchi on the head of the person leaving the house-esp a newborn baby
8.putting charcoal or iron nail inside the food item sent to a distant place.
9. poosaNikkaay udaiththal, veettil katti vaiththal with black and white dots. After each wedding was over in the family all family members sit together and a poosaNikkaay is rounded round them and smashed in the street. It is important everybody keep serious silence when the process is done.( I find it hard to smother a snigger!)
10.at different stages of site constructions lemon is cut and smeared with kungumam and thrown in all 4 directions- equivalent to doing this with chicks which also happens!

The list is endless.. I can't recall them now. All the aarathis are believed to serve this purpose.
An interesting subject to believers and non-believers!:-D

[pavalamani pragasam]

Another popular practice to ward off evil eye from babies is karuppu thrushti pottu on the cheek(or anywhere on the face!). The irony is today's kumaris and kuzanthaikaL are alike averse to pottu on the forehead!:twisted:
My mil was grieved to see me disliking kannathu thrushti pottu(so-so pilLaikkaariyellaam thrishti pottu vaikkuraa nee ippadi oru arumaiyaana kuzanthaikku.... was her dialogue); now myself a mil my grievance was my dils disliked adorning my grandsons with a karuppu pottu in the centre of the forehead saying boys must be seen as boys!!! My deepest sorrow is my chinna pEththi(3+) does not like a paLich pottu on her forehead- kaNNukku theriyaatha oru chinna dot is all that she allows!!!:(
Ideas of feminine beautifications are undergoing sea changes!!!:(:(:(

[al_gates]

Do we really need a thread for superstitions and ignorant practices that have harmed and endangered lives?

Even if there is no threat to life, some of our idiotic practices have caused lot of mental anxieties and anguish in the minds of some people.

The newer generation is confident and positive thanks to a lot of these practices swept under the carpet.

[pavalamani pragasam]

:roll:Not so fast! Let us go slow in categorically trashing all our old practices! Many of them have scientific proofs of protection! Just recall the last speech by the hero in the movie, 'Ezaam aRivu'! Our ancestors were wise and intelligent in their calculations and customs even when civilisation and science were in nascent stage in most of the other aras on earth! Just because we cannot explain in black and white terms age-old behind most of our customs can't be dismissed/ignored/laughed at. I do agree some have become outdated ie redundant/unnecessary under present circumstances- the dangers/threats they protected us from no longer exist. When it is easy to believe the flow of positive and negative waves around us there should be no problem in accepting some sane basis for our good old customs. I reiterate our ancestors were by means stupid/unenlightened/un'educated'!!!:swinghead: