?We?ll all get up early and have a purifying bath. Then we?ll prepare the offerings for the puja(prayers).? This is how the Muneesamy family of Moka will start today in celebration of the Tamil New Year, Varusha Pirappu. ?We will also boil milk and let it overflow, as a sign of prosperity and plenty. The same milk will be used for the offerings when it will be cooked with rice and sugar,? says Yagadambhal. The whole family will then go to their puja room and pray for health and prosperity for the coming year and express their gratitude for the past year with the offerings.

A family lunch with all their relatives will mark the festive day with simplicity. ?We mark our fast by eating only vegetables today,? she says, ?and prepare what is commonly called sept cari.? This is a mixture of seven different ingredients: dholl and brinjal (sambar), potatoes, green beans, pumpkin, spiced banana, grated cucumber with soured milk (patchery) and a soup of tamarind and chillies (rasom).

Then, the dessert is sago cooked with nuts and raisins (payasom) eaten with a crispy savoury wafer (apallam).

During the day they will also go to their temple in Mount Ory to pray. Readings from the Pangangum (Tamil horoscope) mark the prayers at the kovil in Mount Ory. The priest Sankoranarayanan Kurukkal, who came from Tanjauor 15 years ago, explains that the coming year is named Darana, meaning either ?stand up? or ?be tied down?. Some of his predictions are that ?there will be catastrophes such as earthquakes in India, cyclones in Mauritius and a lot of fires worldwide. Between July and September, new illnesses will appear. But there will also be a lot of rain and plantations will thrive. In the sector of education and music there will be developments.?

The Tamil community in Mauritius was established as far back as 1729, when according to some documents, the ship La Sirene came with Indians from Pondichery in the Tamil Nadu state. In 1850, the Sinatambou family built the first Tamil temple in Terre-Rouge. The Tamil community continued to consolidate their culture by building more and more temples across the island. The influence of Tamils can be seen in many aspects of Mauritius, including the language, where words such as vinday are used in Creole.