Skanda Sashti 2026

About Skanda Sashti

Skanda Sashti, or Kanda Sashti, is the six-day Tamil festival of Murugan that ends in Soorasamharam, the re-enactment of his victory over the demon Soorapadman, which falls on Tuesday, 10 November 2026 in 2026. Devotees fast for all six days and recite the Kanda Sashti Kavasam, and the largest crowds gather on the beach at Tiruchendur. The next day the temples celebrate Thirukalyanam, Murugan's wedding to Deivanai.

Sashti means the sixth. Murugan's devotees fast on the sixth lunar day of every month, but the one after Deepavali is the big one. Tamils call it Maha Kanda Sashti, and for six days many households eat little, light a lamp and read the same hymn until the sixth evening, when Murugan's vel brings down Soorapadman.

The story behind the six days

The story comes from the Kanda Puranam, the Tamil retelling of the Skanda Purana by the poet-priest Kachiyappa Sivachariyar of Kanchipuram. Soorapadman, an asura, had won a boon from Shiva that made him nearly impossible to defeat, and with his brothers he drove the gods from their heavens. Shiva could not take back a boon he had given, so he sent six sparks from his third eye. They became Murugan, the six-faced son raised by the Krittika stars.

Tiruchendur tradition says Murugan came to that shore before the war, where Guru (Brihaspati), doing penance there, told him about his enemy. He fought for six days. Soorapadman's brothers fell first, though the names given to them differ between retellings and between temples. At the end Soorapadman hid in the sea as a giant mango tree. Murugan split it with his vel, and the two halves became the peacock he rides and the rooster on his flag. The temple has a carving of that mango tree, growing upside down in the ocean.

That last turn matters. The enemy is not erased but changed and kept at Murugan's side, so many devotees read Soorasamharam as the defeat of one's own pride and anger.

Tiruchendur and the twelve-day festival

Tiruchendur, in Thoothukudi district, is the second of Murugan's six abodes and the only one beside the sea. Its processional deity for the battle is Jayanthinathar, and temple tradition says the town itself was once called Thirujayanthipuram, the town of victory. Most Murugan temples keep Kanda Sashti for six or seven days. Tiruchendur keeps it for twelve.

1. Day 1
   Yagasalai begins

   At dawn a fire ritual starts in a six-sided altar, and many devotees begin their fast at the temple

2. Days 1–5
   Daily abhishekam and processions

   Jayanthinathar is taken out with Valli and Deivanai each day

3. Day 6 · Soorasamharam
   The battle on the beach

   In the evening Murugan goes to the shore without his consorts and the effigies of the asuras are beheaded one by one, ending with Soorapadman; back at the temple a mirror abhishekam "cools" the victor

4. Day 7 · Thirukalyanam
   The wedding

   Deivanai sits in penance in the morning, the betrothal follows in the evening, and the wedding is held at midnight

5. Days 8–12
   Unjal sevai

   Murugan in wedding clothes sits on a swing in the wedding hall and receives devotees; the festival closes with a turmeric-water bath poured during the procession

The crowd on the sixth evening runs into lakhs. In 2025 the festival opened with the yagasalai on 22 October, the Soorasamharam was held on the evening of 27 October and the wedding followed on 28 October. Police close vehicle entry at the town's edges, so many people walk the last few kilometres.

The festival in other places

Tiruchendur is the best known, but the battle is staged at Murugan temples across Tamil Nadu. At Palani the deity, as Dandayudhapani, goes in procession around the town before the effigies fall. Thiruparankundram near Madurai is where tradition places Murugan's marriage to Deivanai. In Kerala, the Soorasamharam is held in the Tamil settlements of Palakkad district, and Murugan temples in Sri Lanka mark it too.

The festival is mostly Tamil. Outside that tradition, a general Murugan or Kartikeya greeting works better than a reference to Tiruchendur.

The six-day fast

In its strict form, as Tamil sources describe it, devotees wake early and bathe, set up a pot and lamp for Murugan, eat nothing through the day, take only milk and fruit at night, and break the fast on the seventh morning with a meal called paaranai. Families adapt it. Older people, the unwell and pregnant women often keep a lighter version, and some keep the fast only on the sixth day.

The hymn read through the week is the Kanda Sashti Kavasam, the "armour" of Kanda Sashti. Devaraya Swamigal composed it in the nineteenth century at the Murugan temple in Chennimalai, Erode district. It asks Murugan to guard every part of the body, and some devotees recite it 36 times a day during the fast. A recording by the Soolamangalam Sisters is among the best known.

How the date is set

Kanda Sashti runs from the first to the sixth day of the bright fortnight of the lunar month Kartika, which starts with the new moon a day or two after Deepavali. In the Tamil solar calendar that is usually Aippasi, sometimes the start of Karthikai in a late year. Drik Panchang notes a rule from the Dharmasindhu and Nirnayasindhu: the preferred day is when the sixth tithi joins the fifth, so if Shashthi begins before sunset on Panchami, Tiruchendur and other Tamil temples hold the Soorasamharam that day. This is why some calendars show the festival a day earlier than you might expect.

About a month later, Karthigai Deepam honours Murugan again, with lamps that recall the Krittika stars who raised him. Thaipusam, in Thai, marks the day he received the vel he used in this battle. Other dates for the year are on the festival calendar.

What to say

Kanda Sashti nalvazhthukkal

Good wishes on Kanda Sashti; the usual Tamil greeting

Vetrivel Muruganukku Arohara

Victory to Murugan of the conquering vel; the cry of Murugan's devotees

Muruga saranam

Murugan, I take refuge in you

Soorasamharam

The destruction of Sooran (Soorapadman); the sixth-day re-enactment

Thirukalyanam

The sacred wedding, held the day after Soorasamharam

Yagasalai

The fire-ritual hall where the six days of worship are held

Paaranai

The meal that breaks the fast

Kavasam

Armour; a hymn asking the god to protect the body

How to wish someone on Skanda Sashti

A Kanda Sashti wish speaks to the fast and to the victory at its end. Many of the people you are writing to have eaten little for six days, so honour their discipline and keep food jokes out of it. "Kanda Sashti nalvazhthukkal" is the usual Tamil greeting, and "Vetrivel Muruganukku Arohara" is the cry raised on the beach. The story ends with the enemy transformed rather than wiped out, which suits messages for someone going through a hard time. On Thirukalyanam day, the wedding theme fits wishes for couples and families.

Write a few lines in your own words, pick a design and share it as one link on WhatsApp, Instagram or anywhere else. They open an animated card made just for them, with no app and no sign-up.

Language tip: English, Tamil.

When is Skanda Sashti in each year?

Skanda Sashti is set by the Hindu lunisolar calendar, so it falls on a different date each year. In 2027 it falls 11 days earlier than in 2026. Skanda Sashti runs 6 days.

Frequently asked questions