[Need Clarification] Thai Amaavaasya Lunch menu

[Navalpakam Jaganathan]

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what is the type of menu should we prepare for lunch on Thai Amaavaasya day

 

[sunita]

Thai Amavasya (தை அமாவாசை) is a special day for pitru tharpanam and ancestor offerings. It’s a solemn and sacred occasion. So, lunch on this day is usually simple, sattvic (pure), and without garlic and onion.


Since the focus is on tharpanam and not celebration, the meal should be more like what we prepare for Shraddham or Amavasya thaligai — humble but complete.


Here’s the typical menu many Tamil Brahmin households follow:

• Cooked Rice (Sadham)
• Paruppu (Cooked Toor Dal) with a drop of ghee
• Sambar (no onion, no garlic) — made with vegetables like pumpkin, ash gourd, or drumstick
• Kootu — made with vegetables like chow chow, cabbage, or ash gourd and moong dal
• Rasam — Jeeragam milagu rasam or paruppu rasam
• Kari (Dry curry) — typically with yam (senai), raw banana (vazhakkai), or potato, but always without onion or garlic
• Aviyal — optional, again, made without onion or garlic
• Appalam / Vadam
• Pickle (small quantity)
• Curd
• Payasam — usually made with jaggery, like paruppu payasam or aval payasam

Some families also prepare koottu curry or beans usili if it’s not a tharpanam day for them specifically but just observing Thai Amavasya.


If tharpanam is performed in the morning, food should only be taken after the rituals are over. And ideally, no tiffin or coffee in the morning before the shraddham thaligai is offered.