PONGAL CELEBRATIONS AT My HOME.

A GLIMPSE OF HOW I CELEBRATED PONGAL.

Hi friends,

A Harvest festival is celebrated in various forms across the world and on different dates and months. Most of these festivals fall in the month of January in India. Pongal, Makar Sankranti, Bihu, Lohri are some of them. Baisakhi is celebrated in April while Onam is in August or September. Let’s take a look at the pongal celebration in my home.

I woke up early in the morning and drew this Rangoli on my porch. After preparing a quick breakfast, I had a quick shower and started cooking. I also drew the picture of a Sun, two sugarcanes and a pot of pongal before starting the pooja ( Worship) to Lord Suryanarayan ( The Sun God)

Here is the picture of my living room after the worship.

ABOUT PONGAL:

Pongal also known as Thai Pongal marks the beginning of the month Thai as per the Tamil  Calendar. It’s considered to be an auspicious month. Pongal is a harvest festival celebrated in South India in the month of January every year. This festival lasts for 3-4 days. The first day is Bhogi pongal where people burn their old and discarded things and welcome new possessions.

Personally, I feel that we should burn our bad qualities like greed, jealousy, pride, anger in the fire of pure devotion. The second day is dedicated to The Sun God who is the life force of the universe. On this day, we prepare delicious dishes as an offering and worship Him. 

We prepare:
Sweet Pongal ( made of rice,  jaggery, cashew, raisins, cardamom, and ghee),  Meduvada, Sambar, salad, and any vegetable curry.

While preparing Sweet Pongal, we allow it to boil and rise in the copper utensil like milk and shout ‘ Pongal o Pongal’ with great enthusiasm.

The third day is called Maattu Pongal.  On this day, we worship the cows and bulls for their invaluable services to us, especially, the farmers. Some Tamilians celebrate only three days. We have the fourth one called Kaanum Pongal. On this day,  as per the Brahmin customs, ladies and little girls serve different colored rice with bananas and pieces of sugarcane on the leaves of the turmeric plant to the crows, praying for the welfare of their brothers. They take bath only after completing this ritual and then consume tea or coffee. We don’t prepare Sambar Or vegetable stew. We make Lemon rice, coconut rice, and curd rice with Papads and sweet pudding ( Kheer).

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