Introduction: Pongal
Pongal is a harvest festival in Tamil Nadu, the south most state of India. It is also known as “Thai Pongal”. The word ‘Thai’ is one of the months name in Tamil language. In general, people across the state reap crops cultivated in their own lands in January of every year. Then they celebrate the Pongal to convey their gratitude to the Sun and Cattle those who helped for cultivation. There is a famous quote in Tamil Language called “thai piranthaal vazhi pirakkum” which means “all the good things will start to happen once the month Thai (January) begins / Every problem will be resolved in a good way.”
Four-Day festival
Thai Pongal is a four-day festival. Namely Bogi, Thai Pongal, Perumpongal/Mattu Pongal and Karinaal.
First Day: Bogi – people celebrate bogi by burning old clothes and dresses
Second Day: Thai Pongal – Prepare boiled rice and worship the Sun god. This is an act of offering the boiled rice to the Sun.
Third Day: Perum Pongal/Mattu Pongal – A kind of preparing boiled rice (rice taken from just reaped paddy) seasoned with cow’s milk (A2). People say “Pongalo Pongal” aloud when the rice boils over.
Fourth Day: Karinaal – play Jallikattu (Bull-Taming sport), cook non-vegetarian etc.
A Tamil Joint Family Celebrates Pongal
I spoke to the head of the family. He said “Me and my four sons’ families gather here to celebrate it. We are about 50 members in our family. Each family contributes 3500 to 5000 rupees including my family for this event to make it big. We buy new mud pots every year to boil the rice, buy new clothes for male members and new dresses for female members to wear on during this festival. The Mattu (cows and bulls) Pongal day is special for us. We bathe our own cattle on this day, we paint their horns, we decorate them like a god and we worship them. We take well matured paddies, remove husks to get first class rice and use this rice to prepare Pongal. We don’t taste it. We first feed the Pongal to each cattle without fail. It is our greatness to show our gratitude because they helped us to cultivate the rice and other vegetables that we eat every day. Then we sit in a row to eat. Our family members will look very colorful on this day. I can see smiling faces.” Harmony blooms while we gather for celebration, he added. I was longing to eat along with them and was waiting for his invite. At last he invited me to eat. Nevertheless, I relished the village food verities including Pongal.
Conclusion
In my point of view, this is a well known thanks giving traditional festival of Tamil Nadu. As a Tamilian, I await every Tamil New year occasion to see good things happen. I have strong belief in the quote “thai printhaal vazhi pirakkum” since have been inculcated so. There is no room for superstition because it has a logical reason behind this trust. People will obviously earn money by selling their newly harvested crops. This amount will help them to buy and do good things. So, there is no doubt in happening auspicious incidents. We will meet in another article soon. Thank you for reading.
