trichy with every ethnic group having their own calendar marking the commencement of new year celebrated on different dates and in different ways tamil puththandu tamil new year was observed with religious fervour to welcome the first day of chithirai month celebrated annually on april 14 people on saturday thronged religious centres with prayers for a happy beginning and adequate monsoonsas tamil calendar has a 60year cycle and each year having unique name the new born year was named as vilambi with public holiday for the occasion various temples in the city were witnessing a surge in footfall as public queued up for special darshan to ensure a fruitful beginning as chithirai in known for holy celebrations in many of the temples as a part of the chithirai festival and marking the beginning of tamil puththandu holy temple car of vekkali amman temple in woraiyur was pulled by scores of devotees a large number of devotees from various parts of the district including lalgudi and thuraiyur visited temples here such as vekkali amman samayapuram mariamman temple and aiyappan temple on lawsons road on the occasion of tamil puththandu absence of monsoon and inadequate water were the problems we face in recent years let us hope this puththandu brings us adequate monsoon to sustain farming activities and keep people with peace and harmony k suresh anandh a devotee at vekkali amman temple saidgood samaritans had also opened buttermilk dispensing stalls and annadhanam stalls around the temples of woraiyur to distribute free food and natural refreshment drinks for the pilgrims and devotees on tamil puththandu day following the chithirai festival and puththandu day city police deployed significant number of police force across identified spots in the city for crowd management near temple complexes