What to wear from Pongal to Karthigai Deepam

The Tamil festival year asks for different sarees at different times, mostly because of the weather. Here is how our regular customers in Coimbatore plan their wardrobe across the year.

Pongal in January is a cotton and silk cotton festival. Mornings start with the pot boiling over in the courtyard and a long day in the kitchen, so a Kovai cotton or a light silk cotton in yellow, green or turmeric orange is practical and still looks festive. Sankranti visits in the evening are a good time for a soft silk.

Aadi Perukku and the Aadi Fridays in July and August bring temple visits and gatherings by the river. It is humid, so many women choose a soft silk under 700 g, in green or mango yellow. Varalakshmi Vratham usually falls in August too, and this is when the first Kanchipuram of the year tends to come out.

Navaratri in September or October means nine evenings of golu visits. A different colour each night is a tradition in many homes, so this is the season for lighter soft silks you can rotate. Deepavali is the one morning most families buy new clothes, and silk is the expected choice for the oil bath and puja. Karthigai Deepam in November closes the year with lamps at dusk, and deep reds and maroons look lovely in that light. Order by the first week of a festival month if you need blouse stitching. Our tailors are busiest in the ten days before Deepavali.