Pongal is a multi-day Hindu harvest festival of South India, particularly in the Tamil community, dedicated to the Hindu sun god, the Surya.
Significance of Pongal
Pongal is a harvest festival dedicated to the Sun God, is a very important four-day festival in the Tamil calendar. The first day, Bhogi, is when people discard old belongings and celebrate new possessions. The main event, known as Thai Pongal, takes place on the second of the four days.
Pongal means “overflowing,” signifying abundance and prosperity. During the festival, milk is cooked in a vessel along with jaggery (raw sugar). To mark the festival, the Pongal sweet dish is prepared. When it starts to bubble and overflows out of the vessel, freshly harvested rice grains are added to the pot. At the same time, other participants blow a conch called the sanggu and shout “Pongalo Pongal! The Pongal rice is then served first offered to the gods and goddesses (goddess Pongal), given to the cattle, and then everyone in the house along with savories and sweets.
Maatu Pongal is celebrated the day after Thai Pongal. The Tamils regard cattle as sources of wealth for providing dairy products, fertilizer, and labor for plowing and transportation. On Maatu Pongal, the cattle are celebrated by being bathed and decorated, their horns polished and painted in bright colors, and garlands of flowers placed around their necks.
It is traditionally an occasion for decorating rice-powder-based kolam artworks, offering prayers in the home, temples, getting together with family and friends, and exchanging gifts to renew social bonds of solidarity.
According to tradition, the festival marks the end of the winter solstice, similar to Lohri, and the start of the sun’s six-month-long journey northwards when the sun enters the Capricorn.
Celebrated Globally
Pongal is one of the most important festivals celebrated by Tamil people in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Puducherry in India. It is also a major Tamil festival in Sri Lanka. It is observed by the Tamil diaspora globally including those in Malaysia, Mauritius, South Africa, Singapore, United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.
Etymology and history
Tai refers to the name of the tenth month in the Tamil calendar, while Pongal (from pongu) connotes “boiling over” or “overflow.” Pongal is also the name of a sweetened dish of rice boiled in milk and jaggery that is ritually consumed on this day.
Pongal has its roots in the Sangam Period roughly identified from 6th century BC to 2nd century AD. Legends say that the Pongal celebration is not less than 2,000 years old. The principal theme of Pongal is thanking the Sun god, the forces of nature, and the farm animals and people who support agriculture. The Pongal festival is mentioned in an inscription in the Viraraghava temple dedicated to Vishnu (Thiruvallur, Chennai). Credited to the Chola king Kulottunga I (1070-1122 CE), the inscription describes a grant of land to the temple for celebrating the annual Pongal festivities. Similarly, the 9th-century Shiva bhakti text Tiruvembavai by Manikkavachakar vividly mentions the festival.
Pongal Main Dish
The festival’s most significant practice is the preparation of the traditional “pongal” dish. It uses freshly harvested rice and is prepared by boiling it in milk and raw cane sugar (jaggery). Sometimes additional ingredients are added to the sweet dish, such as: cardamom, raisins, Green gram (split), and cashew nuts. Other ingredients include coconut and ghee (clarified butter from cow milk). Along with the sweet version of the Pongal dish, some prepare other versions such as salty and savory (venpongal).
In some communities, women take their “cooking pots to the town center, or the main square, or near a temple of their choice or simply in front of their own home” and cook together as a social event, states Gutiérrez. The cooking is done in sunlight, usually in a porch or courtyard, as the dish is dedicated to the Sun god, Surya. Relatives and friends are invited, and the standard greeting on the Pongal day typically is, “has the rice boiled”?
The cooking is done in a clay pot that is often garlanded with leaves or flowers, sometimes tied with a piece of turmeric root or marked with pattern artwork called kolam. It is either cooked at home, or in community gatherings such as in temples or village open spaces. It is the ritual dish, along with many other courses prepared from seasonal foods for all present. It is traditionally offered to the gods and goddesses first, followed sometimes by cows, then to friends and family gathered. Temples and communities organize free kitchens prepared by volunteers for all those who gather.
Bhogi Pongal
The Pongal festival begins on the day called Bhogi Pongal, and it marks the last day of the Tamil month Marghazi. On this day people discard old belongings and celebrate new possessions. The people assemble and light a bonfire in order to burn the heaps of discards. Houses are cleaned, painted and decorated to give a festive look. The horns of oxen and buffaloes are painted in villages. New clothes are worn to mark the start of the festival. The deity of the day is Indra – the god of rains, to whom prayers are offered, with thanks and hopes for plentiful rains in the year ahead.
Bhogi is also observed on the same day in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In the ceremony called Bhogi Pallu, fruits of the harvest such as regi pallu and sugar cane are collected along with flowers of the season. Money is often placed into a mixture of treats and is poured over children. The children then separate and collect the money and sweet fruits.
This widely celebrated festival brings in joy and gusto wherever celebrated.
Rita
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