Preparations were underway at Aatkattiveli Thuyilum Illam in Mannar yesterday ahead of Maaveerar Naal which falls on November 27.
Before the cleaning began, the families paid tribute to the fallen Tamil fighters. Thommai, the brother of Lt. Maalathy, the first female fighter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to lose her life in the Tamil armed struggle, lit a flame by a makeshift gravestone.
Tamils across the North-East will be cleaning Thuyilum Illams in the homeland as the Tamil nation prepares to commemorate Maaveerar Naal.
Maaveerar Naal - or Great Heroes Day - remembers those who sacrificed their lives in the Tamil liberation struggle, and is marked on November 27, in memory of the first death of a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadre, Lt Col. Shankar who died in combat on November 27, 1982.