For us growing up Deepavali was always such a private and personal family celebration, it’s been really interesting to see and understand what happens when personal, household rituals use the temple as an interface. We saw this once before at the Mutthumariamman temple during the Periyandavar Puja which was really for a young child’s tonsure and ear-piercing–a family ceremony–but now on a much larger scale with Deepavali nonbu.
Nonbu is an observance, a vrata, a fast, a promise, a penance, or all of these things combined. Deepavali/Amavasya nonbu is perhaps next in importance only to the Varalakshmi nonbu that happened in Aadi masam, marked by vilakku pujas and the like. But this nonbu is one that traditionally begins on Shukla Paksha Ashtami (the eighth day of the waxing moon) in the Tamil month of Purattasi (or, occasionally, on dashami, depending on the lunar tithi calculations). Deepavali amavasya is the 21st day, so when families gather they come to the temple carrying 21 of everything: fruits, betel leaves, athirasam, though perhaps not coconuts! Plus as many nonbu kayar yellow strings as there are members of the family who have undertaken the observance. All this in a large vessel, usually clay or metal, and covered here in Pondicherry with what appeared to me to be crocheted tea-cosies, which must be a colonial-era or later artifact. All this is placed in front of Mutthumariamman, but not in her sannadhi. Rather, there’s a makeshift shrine where they keep the utsava murti against a backdrop of punnai maram branches (why punnai? See below). The priest officiates as people arrive, break a coconut, place their offerings beneath the Mariamman figure, words are said, the lamp is raised, blessings are given, thattu-kaasu or plate offerings are made, and then the family retreats with their offerings to circumambulate the temple. Then some continue home to finish the puja there and tie the nonbu kayar or yellow thread on themselves (or someone ties it for them, on their behalf).
[The priest alerted us to the fact that Deepavali (Naraka chaturdashi) nonbu is different from amavasya nonbu for which there would be a massive rush, he said. 5000 people! There were indeed there were queue-control barriers set up to guide all who came, and a ticket system for those who wished a faster route to the final destination.]
All this is in addition to the usual very early morning Deepavali oil bath, wearing new clothes and so on. In our homes these were the verses which corresponded:
तैले लक्ष्मीर्जले गङ्गा दीपावल्यां चतुर्दशीम् ।
प्रातःस्नानं हि यः कुर्याद्यमलोकं न पश्यति ॥
अपामार्गमथो तुम्बीं प्रपुन्नाटमथापरम् ।
भ्रामयेत्स्नानमध्ये तु नरकस्य क्षयाय वै ॥
सीतालोष्टसमायुक्त सकण्टकदलान्वित ।
हर पापमपामार्ग भ्राम्यमाणः पुनः पुनः ॥
Lakshmi resides in the oil and Ganga in the water on the Chaturdasi of Deepavali. Whoever performs the morning bath on this day does not behold the world of Yama. During the bath, one should rotate Apamarga, Tumbi and Prapunnata around oneself, for the destruction of the evils leading to naraka. O Apamarga, accompanied by a clod of earth and furnished with thorny leaves, as you are repeatedly rotated, remove my sins!
And by the way, Mutthumariamman and just about all the parivara devatas in the temple had this elaborate fruit alankaram–which one of the nirvagam members told me was a tradition grown in this temple by the priests. Why only flowers for alankara? So there were pineapples above her, and dragonfruits below, layers and layers of green apple and orange malas around, a strawberry mala around her neck. Grapes clustered all along the ardhamandapa’s low beams. Pechaiamman had an apple mala. Pacchai amman had the most elaborate fruit alankara ever, with two watermelons cut on either side of her.
Why the punnai maram as backdrop?
I’m not fully sure, but I think it may have something to do with Parvati’s penances under the punnai tree when she’s born as a peahen (part of the Mylapore sthalapurana), or it’s an older Sangam era metaphor handed down. Punnai trees which grow abundantly and large all over Pondicherry are signs and symbols of the abundance of coastal (Neithal) landscapes, and indeed of the intimacy of the relationships between trees and the many lives sustained in their shade. In Sangam literature, there is a story of the chieftain Anni cutting down the ancient Punnai tree cherished by his rival Tithiyan. Anni himself subsequently fell in battle. The episode is remembered and evoked in several Akananuru poems. Appar, too, invokes this idea to express the depth of his own spiritual inabilities and suffering: “மன்றத்துப் புன்னை போல மரம்படு துயரமெய்தி ஒன்றினால் உணரமாட்டேன் உன்னையுள் வைக்கமாட்டேன்” – Like the punnai tree standing in the public square that suffers the grief of wood, I can realise nothing through understanding, nor can I hold you within my heart [Sixth Tirumurai, 4.26.8, from the Tiruvathigai Veerattaneswarar/ திருவதிகை வீரட்டானம் padhigam]. Punnai is not merely a tree that is felled, it is the anguish of a vital relationship lost–and perhaps the vratam therefore is a commitment to protecting these trees and all the vital interdependencies that they represent? Jnanavel swami did speak considerably of how families with all their differences put them aside and come to the temple do undertake these nonbu offerings together…
[Source: article by R. Kalaikkovan]
A poster outside Mutthumariamman had announced the nonbu timings several weeks prior. On all three days (November 7,8,9), Deepavali followed by Amavasya nonbu in several stages:
- Deepavali Nonbu will be observed on that day from 4:30 PM in the evening until 9:00 PM at night (the temple doors will be closed at 9:00 PM at night). 08.11.2026 (Sunday): Observance will continue from early morning 3:00 AM until 12:00 PM noon
- Amavasai Nonbu will be observed from 12:00 PM noon until 9:00 PM at night (the temple doors will be closed at 9:00 PM at night). Next Day Morning (09.11.2026, Monday): Amavasai Nonbu will be observed from 6:00 AM in the morning until 1:00 PM afternoon.