Conducting Ceremonies, Rituals and Social Gatherings - Conscience and Consciousness of the community

Visiting close as well as distant relatives is common practice among Tamils. Relatives meet often in gatherings such as marriages(கல்யாணம்), house warming ceremonies (வீடு குடிபோதல்), girls' coming-of-age ceremonies (விளக்கேத்திக் கல்யாணம்), sixtieth birthday for a married man (அறுபதாம் கல்யாணம்), ear-piercing ceremonies for children (காதுகுத்து) and the like. How these ceremonies are conducted, among many other things, determines/reflects the status of relations among one's close circle of family. Not conducting these ceremonies at appropriate times would be considered in bad form among the relatives. Many people perform these ceremonies in their homes, just to prevent any rumors from spreading. Sayings such as யார் வாயை மூடினாலும் மூடலாம், ஊர் வாயை மூட முடியாது 'one can shut the mouth of anyone, but never the mouth of the town'; நாலு பேரு நாலு சொல்லுவாங்களேண்ணு பயமா இருக்கு '(I) am afraid that people might say something of this' (lit. four people might say four different things) etc., that Tamils often use reveal how the opinions of the entire community are extremely important in how one's own personal life is conducted.