Aadi Pooram

Aadi Pooram is one the major festival celebrated in every Vaishnavite temples. It falls on the Aadi month , the fourth month of the Tamil calender , and on the Pooram star . This day is considered as Goddess Andal's Birthday , and it is also believed that Andal is the incarnation of goddess Lakshmi. Andal is one among the 12 Alwars , and she is a great poetess , who is well known for her works which include Thiruppavai and Nachiar Thirumozhi . Andal and all other alwars are the most famous devotees of Lord Vishnu.

According to the legend : It was said that goddess Lakshmi took Human form on this day . A Vaishavite saint named , Periyalwar in Srivalliputar , prayed to Goddess Lakshmi that he had no children ...One day morning when Periyalwar was ploughing his field , he found a beautiful child near the Tulasi plant . He took the child home and named her as Andal , and it was on a Pooram star day in the month of Aadi . Therefore this day is celebrated as the birthday of Aandal.

There is one more famous story realted to the life of Aandal , which goes like this : Everyday Periyalwar used to tie garland to Lord Vishnu and offer that to Lord. Aandal will wear the garland everyday before wearing to Lord Vishnu , which was not know to her father ...One day he found this and he made a new garland and took it to the temple , after doing all rituals and decoration to Lord Vishnu , he offered this new garland to Lord. But this new garland fell off ...Inspite of several attempts , Periyalwar was unable to offer the Garland to Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu , he himself came before periyalwar and told that he want to have only the garland which Aandal wored ..and he told him that she is none other than Goddess Lakshmi .

This Aadi pooram is celebrated in grand manner in Srivalliputur , Srirangam and in many other places and it is celebrated for 10 days . In Temples , all women offer Glass bangles to goddess and those bangles are distributed to all the ladies. On this day people will read

Lalitha Sahasranamam and Thiruppavai .

Source : http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/alvars/andal/

Aadiperukku

Aadiperukku is a festival celebrated on the 18th day of Tamil month of Adi (Mid july -August). This year it falls on August 3rd. This festival is also called as "Padinettam perukku" - Padinettu -means 18 and Perukku denotes rising. The aadi month falls during the monsoon season and in this month all the rivers will get filled by the rains . This festival is also a form of worshipping the nature. This festival is celebrated in Tamilnadu and it is a rejoicing for the people who live on the banks of the main rivers , tributaries and branches. People do offer special poojas to the river on this day. Hundreds of devotees , including newly married couple celebrate this festival and worships on the banks of the river . There is a belief that young girls who do this pooja , will be blessed with good husbands.
Mulaipari and Adi perukku : This is a very important ritual which takes place in every village for their village goddess. In villages , womens plants , 9 types of grains inside the eathern pot and on this day the grains will be grown ...they carry that on thier head and along with the goddess they go as a procession to the rivers and the grown grains is dissolved in water . This ritual is performed as a request to the village goddess for rain and fertility of the land.
And on this day women will float ahal villakku in the river , a belief that if the lamp stays floated for a long time , all the dreams will get fulfilled. Women on this day change their Thali saradu (yellow thread ). In case of newly married couples , the brides family invite their daughter's husband and gives the new clothes. On this special day various variety rice are prepared along with sweet dishes and after offerring the pooja to the river goddess they all will have it .
source : http://www.ammas.com/topics/Festivals_and_Celebrations/a152714.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adiperukku

Panchangam & Festival Dates - July

Aadi month / Aashada month / Sharavan month : (Mid July - Mid August )

No major festivals falls in the month of July . Aadi perukku , Aadi Amavasya , Aadi Pooram , Varalakshmi viratham ... falls in August month . Will update about these in next month post .