It would have been fitting if i had written this article a couple of weeks back, for pongal falls on the 14th of january.Pongal could be compared to thanksgiving celebrated in the US as this is also celebrated to thank the Almighty for blessing that year with a good yield . It is a joyous festival celebrated in Tamil Nadu and it also marks the beginning of the year according to the tamil calendar. Recently january 14th has been righty declared as the tamil new year. Pongal is celebrated in a grand scale only in the villages of Tamil Nadu. The first day of pongal is Bhogi ( jan 13th). On this day, the useless and unwanted things present in the household are discarded. The analogy behind this is that undesirable qualities within us should be discarded with the passing year. The next day is pongal which is celebrated by preparing pongal dishes from the newly harvested rice. There are two main pongal dishes, chackra pongal (sweet pongal) and venn pongal (white pongal).The day begins with mouth-watering chackra pongal, a custom practised with the hope that the whole year turns out to be sweet. On the third day, bull-fighting, known as jalli-kattu takes place. This usually happens only in the villages. In cities, pongal dishes are prepared and offered to God,beautiful designs known as ''kolam'' are drawn in the frontyard of every home. Sugarcane is also offered to God and forms an integral part of pongal. This is a picture of pongal dishes being offered to God.
More information about the festival of pongal can be obtained from this link :
No comments:
Post a Comment