Madras Day is a day of celebrations organized in the city of Madras (Chennai), the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
It is celebrated on 22 August every year, and is named after the city.
It commemorates the founding of the modern city by establishing Fort St George on a small piece of land acquired from the last King of Chandragiri in 1639 by the British East India Company. The celebrations include several events organized including citizens and students and lasts for a week.
Birth of Madras Day
The idea to celebrate the birth of the city every year was born when journalists Shashi Nair and Vincent D'Souza met the city's historian and Editor of Madras Musings, S. Muthiah at his residence for coffee.
It was based on the success of another event called Mylapore Festival
which D'Souza had been organising every year in January. It was decided
by the trio to start celebrating Madras Day from 2004. According to them, "primary motive of celebrating `Madras Day' was to focus on the city, its past and its present."
The idea initially started off with about five events in 2004, but with
2008, has over 60 different events associated with the day including
heritage walks, photo walks, lectures, poetry and caption and quiz contests, food festivals and a Bullet tour lasting for a week.
Significance of 22 August
It was on 22 August 1639 that a sliver of land, where now stands Fort St George, was handed over by the local Nayak rulers to the East India Company’s Francis Day, his dubash Beri Thimmappa, and their superior, Andrew Cogan. From this small three square miles given to the East India Company grew the city of Madras where more than four and a half million people live now. As years passed by out of the fort grew settlements and the villages around it were brought together with the old and new towns linked up and hence birth of a city.The Celebration
Originally, this celebration used to last for a day but now it extends for a week. Madras Day focuses on the city, its history, its past and its present and the core team motivates communities, groups, companies and campuses in the city to host events that celebrate the city. The celebration consists of events such as heritage walks (including a "tree walk"), public talks, exhibitions, poetry reading sessions, public performances, food festivals and special programs on local radio. It also includes contests such as, T-shirt designing, documentary film contest, multimedia presentation for schools and quiz in both Tamil and English.T-shirts to mark the event are also released. The talks delivered to mark the week-long celebrations usually involve lectures explaining the heritage and history of the city. There are also events for the retired citizens where they can post their life years ago on the "Stories about Madras section" on Madras day's website and their views on how Madras grew into the Chennai of today.The Indian postal department released a postal cover to commemorate Madras day on 22 August 2007.