Skanda Shashti 2026
15 November 2026

Skanda Shashti, kept in Tamil Nadu as Soorasamharam, falls on the Shukla Shashthi of Kartik in the lunar calendar, which usually comes in the Tamil solar month of Aippasi. It celebrates Murugan, also called Kartikeya and Skanda, the son of Shiva and Parvati, defeating the asura Surapadman. Tamil families know the story from the Kanda Puranam, Kachiyappa Sivachariyar’s Tamil retelling of the Skanda story, which goes back to the Skanda Purana.

Devotees keep a six-day vrat from the Pratipada after Deepavali to the Shashthi, eating little or only once a day, and recite the Kanda Sashti Kavasam. At Tiruchendur, Murugan’s temple on the seashore, the battle is enacted on the beach on the evening of the Shashthi, and Murugan’s wedding to Deivanai, the Thirukalyanam, is celebrated the next day. It is the same tithi as Chhath in the north.

• Picture of Murugan or a vel
• A lamp with ghee or oil
• Flowers and a garland
• Bananas and other fruits
• Milk
• Vibhuti (sacred ash), kumkum and sandal paste
• Incense and camphor
• The text of the Kanda Sashti Kavasam

Source: Kanda Puranam, Kachiyappa Sivachariyar’s Tamil retelling of the Skanda story

The asura Surapadman, made mighty by a boon from Shiva, ruled the worlds and held the devas captive. Only a son of Shiva could defeat him. From Shiva’s eyes came six sparks, carried to the lake Saravana, where they became six infants, raised by the Krittika maidens. Parvati gathered them in her arms and they became one child with six faces, Shanmukha, Murugan.

When he grew, Murugan led the army of the devas against Surapadman. In the battles he defeated Surapadman’s brothers, and on the last day Surapadman, by his powers of illusion, took the form of a great mango tree in the sea. Murugan’s vel split the tree in two.

Even in defeat Surapadman was shown mercy. The two halves became a peacock, which Murugan took as his mount, and a rooster, which he took on his banner. This victory is the Soorasamharam. Afterwards Indra gave his daughter Deivanai to Murugan in marriage, which temples celebrate as the Thirukalyanam.

What to do

• Keep the vrat to your strength: one meal, fruit and milk, or a full fast are all kept, and elders and the unwell often keep the lighter form.
• Recite the Kanda Sashti Kavasam each day of the six, or listen to it with the family, as devotees do through the vrat.
• Break the fast with prasad offered to Murugan, after the Soorasamharam or the next morning, as your family’s custom is.

What to avoid

• Avoid non-vegetarian food, onion and garlic through the six days, since the vrat is kept sattvik.
• Avoid ending the vrat before the Soorasamharam; the six days lead up to that evening.

Skanda Shashti is kept across Tamil Nadu, above all at Murugan’s six abodes, the Arupadai Veedu, with Tiruchendur the best known for the Soorasamharam, and by Tamil families in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore. Tamil Nadu names the lunar month by the solar month in which it falls, so the festival is spoken of as in Aippasi, while in the lunar calendar of the north it is Kartik Shukla Shashthi, the same tithi as Chhath. Every Shukla Shashthi of the year is also kept as a monthly Skanda Shashti.

Temples announce the day from their own Tamil panchang, read at their own sunrise, so the date can differ by a day from a north Indian calendar, or between places far apart.