Pongal 2023: Interesting Facts About The Harvest Festival Of Tamil Nadu

Pongal or Thai Pongal is a harvest festival that is celebrated by people from Tamil community. It is also a reminder to be grateful to the Sun, animals and mother nature. . Essentially a four-day celebration, Pongal marks the beginning of Thai Month which falls usually on 14 January or 15 January. Read on to know more about this day.

Pongal 2023: Interesting Facts About The Harvest Festival

01. According to Astrology, it marks the Uttar Ayana kalam which is a six-month journey of the Sun that begins northwards to the house of Makara or Capricorn. Thai Pongal is the other type of ''thanksgiving'' to the Sun God. The mainstay of this festival is the delectable Pongal, a preparation of sweetened rice which is first offered to the Sun,
02. Pongal celebration dates back over 1000 years as confirmed by epigraphical evidence from the Chola days.
03. Commonly in the month of Thai (January-February), cash crops like rice, and sugarcane are harvested. Hence Pongal is associated with this season.
04. The term 'pongal' in Tamil means "to boil over", which implies spiiling over of our happiness and overflowing produce. Particularly rural people celebrate it with great devotion and the rich land owners gift the farm workers with Pongi Enam, which comes in the form of cash, clothes, etc.
05. This festival is known as Makara Sankranti in Andhra, Bihu in Bihar, Uttarayana in Rajasthan and Gujarat, and Maghi in Punjab and Haryana.
06. Pongal a sweetened rice boiled with lentils and jaggery and grated coconut, is served as a staple food of this festival.
07.It is prepared in the temple kitchen the cooks are from the local Brahmin community. This pattern is observed in Puri jagannath temple, Odhisa, Viswanath temple, Varanasi, UP. Traditional vessels are to be used for the prasad preparations
08. The Bhogi festival, is the first day of Pongal that is dedicated to Lord Indra who is the god of harvest as well. It is a tradition to declutter the home, discarding useless items and throwing them into the bonfire. This would get rid of all negative elements in the house.
09. The bonfire used to be made out of dried cow dung cakes and firewood. It is not so nowadays.
10. Thai Pongal is the second day of the festival, where in Pongal is prepared with added ingredients like cardamom, raisins, green gram (split), and cashew nuts. Cooking is done in a courtyard, under the Sun andm then dedicated to him. It is prepared in a good muhurat and placed in a decorated earthen pot with turmeric twigs tied around it.
11Early in the morning after bath, women draw kolams in various patterns and colours. This welcomes the deities, home and drives out negativity,
12. Third day is the Mattu Pongal, the third day is meant for the worship of the cow and the bulls. Cows and bulls are decorated with bells, garlands or beads and paper and so on. Homes receive a fresh coat of paint.
Cows are of multifarious uses to human beings. Bulls take care of ploughing of the agricultural lands, taking the produce to the market, and so on. The cows and bulls are fed with Pongal and aarti is conducted by women folk to them.
13. Devout folk in the towns, worship the photo of kamadhenu in their houses. Many buy fruits and vegetables and greens and offer them at the Goshalas. Worshipping cows is bound to bring prosperity to the family. Goddess Lakshmi blesses those people who care for the animals particularly cows and bulls.
14. Kaanum (or Kanu) Pongal is the fourth day of the Pongal. The ritual includes placing the venn pongal (unsweetened) and so on on a long turmeric leaf in which bits of banana and sugarcane are arranged. Young women and girls pray for the welfare and longevity of their family members. Aarthi is performed to brothers. The elderly mark the foreheads of young girls with turmeric so that they can be assured of a long and happy married life.
15. They also consume varieties of food including coconut bath pongal, pulliyotharai (tamarind bath) curd bath, etc., along with other dishes on the menu.

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