Karthika Masam Food: What to Eat During the Holy Month

Karthika Masam, the lunar month following Diwali, is the most widely observed period of religious discipline in Andhra households. Many families keep some form of fast for all thirty days.

In practice that usually means one meal a day, no onion or garlic, and often no non-vegetarian food at all. It changes what a household buys quite noticeably.

Milk sweets suit the month well because they are permitted during most fasting observances and are filling without being heavy. Konaseema Kova, Milk Mysorepak and Rasagulla all fit.

Jaggery-based sweets are the other staple. Bellam Sunnundalu, made with urad dal and jaggery, is genuinely nourishing and is what many families break a fast with.

Karthika Somavaram, the Mondays of the month, sees the heaviest observance, and temple visits generate the largest single-day demand for prasadam-style sweets.

For anyone ordering through the month, small and frequent works better than one large order. Milk sweets do not keep, and the point of the month is not stockpiling.