Chennai Culture

Chennai is regarded as the cultural capital of South India. The city is highly cultured having its own grace. It is also known for being the patron of traditional forms of dance, music and art forms. No wonder every lane of the city has a dance and music school.

The city is a wonderful gateway for having a glimpse of the world famous contagious, warm hospitality of Tamil culture. One will be flattered to see the gracious hospitality that is showered on the guest even by the humblest householder.

Early rising and religious rites are integral part of every Tamil household. The doorsteps has a very typical Tamil decoration with kolam. Friday is known as the day when people visit the temples.

Festivals in Chennai - Pongal

When it comes to festival, Pongal is the most important festival that has been accorded the status of 'State Festival'. It is celebrated with great fervor through out the city and the whole of South India.But other festivals like Eid, Deepavali are equally celebrated with full enthusiasm.

Chennai is culturally sensitive in dressing sense. The city lags behind in the fashion scenario. The inhabitants still prefer the traditional Tamil form of dressing with young girls donning up in half-sari or Pavada.Being fashionable here means having clad in salwar-kameez or jeans. Revealing outfits are a strict no-no.

The natives are crazy about traditional form of dance and music. The month of December marks the beginning of the season of music and shows the madness of the people for their rich cultural heritage. There are several cultural trusts like The Bharat Kalachar well known for keeping the rich cultural heritage of the city intact. The Y.G.P Auditorium is echoes with the performances given by reputed dancers who give splendid Bharatatyam recitals to mesmerizing rasikas.

Dance of Chennai - Bharatnatyam

The most amazing fact about the culture of Chennai is that on one glance the dusty city dupes the visitors with its typical Tamilian appearance but while exploring minutely one comes across several layers which are very fascinating.

While going deeper, a delightful facet of the traditional city comes to the ground. It is a wonderful pot-pouri of diverse cultures. Though the majority of the population of the inhabitants are native Tamilians and descendents of those who have come from various corner of TamilNadu but the population also consists of a mixture of Sindhis, Gujaratis, Malaylese, Muslims and Kannadiga. Earlier known as a land with strong regional identity today it has metamorphosed into a cosmopolitan city. Today communities like Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Anglo Indian and many migrants from northern part of India and foreign nationals working in the IT centres are responsible for its new look.

The medium of communication is Tamil which is also the first language of the city but English is widely spoken in all the sphere. One can assume the impact of this language as the English words are freely used at a frequent pace in Tamil spoken by the natives. This linguistic fusion has created a new dialect which is known as 'Madras Bhashai'.

Pubs in Chennai - HFO, Dublin The wave of globalization and the cosmopolitan spirit has given birth to numerous pubs and discotheques where people dressed in western outfits dance to the maddening effects of Western Trance till the early hours of morning. The city boasts of pubs like HFO, Dublin and many more.

What boils down from the above analysis is, for the first timers Chennai may appear to be conservative where the residents are proud of their cultural heritage and strictly follow traditional norms but the various layers of contradictions indicate that culturally it should be looked beyond Tamil culture.