pongal

Pongal is the harvest festival in Tamilnadu. It is celebrated on 14^th January. ‘Pongal’ is the name given for rice spacially cook in milk. The word Pongal means to rise up, or overflow.

The festival is celebrated for four days under different names from 13^th onwards. They are ‘Bogi’, ’Pongal’, ’Maattuppongal’ and ‘Thiruvalluvar Day.’

On the Bogi day people throw away old materials and clean up their houses. Houses are painted white. All bathe their farm animals and decorate them with colored powders and paints.

Pongal is the first day of the auspicious Tamil month Thai. People worship the Sun God. People cook pongal in clay pots. When the cooked rice swells up and overflows all shut in joy pongalo-pongal. The overflowed milk is believed to be a sign of a prosperous season ahead. Like any other festival it is time to exchange greetings and sweets. People visit their friends and relatives. Harvested sugarcane is eaten by all. People visit their native towns and villages during the harvest festival season.

Maattuppongal is the day for farm animals – especially bulls. Bulls, cows and other farm animals are worshipped on this day. Farmers gather to display their fierce bulls. Each bull has cloth tied around its neck containing money. The owner of the bull challenges the rest of the people to bring the bull under control to get the victory cloth away from its neck. The bulls are made angry with lots of noise from the drums, whistles, shouts and even smoke. Fatal accidents happen at time.

Thiruvalluvar made a significant contribution to Tamil Literature with Thirukkural. There are 1330 verses of two lines each in this work and they talk about all aspects of human life