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Pongal is a four-days-long harvest festival celebrated in Tamil Nadu, a
southern state of India. For as long as people have been planting and
gathering food, there has been some form of harvest festival. Pongal,
one of the most important popular Hindu festivals of the year. This
four-day festival of thanksgiving to nature takes its name from the
Tamil word meaning “to boil” and is held in the month of Thai
(January-February) during the season when rice and other cereals,
sugar-cane, and turmeric (an essential ingredient in Tamil cooking) are
harvested.

Mid-January is an important time in the Tamil calendar. The harvest
festival, Pongal, falls typically on the 14th or the 15th of January and
is the quintessential ‘Tamil Festival’. Pongal is a harvest festival, a
traditional occasion for giving thanks to nature, for celebrating the
life cycles that give us grain. Tamilians say ‘Thai pirandhaal vazhi
pirakkum’, and believe that knotty family problems will be solved with
the advent of the Tamil month Thai that begins on Pongal day. This is
traditionally the month of weddings. This is not a surprise in a largely
agricultural community – the riches gained from a good harvest form the
economic basis for expensive family occasions like weddings.

This first day is celebrated as Bhogi festival in honor of Lord Indra,
the supreme ruler of clouds that give rains. Homage is paid to Lord
Indra for the abundance of harvest, thereby bringing plenty and
prosperity to the land. Another ritual observed on this day is Bhogi
Mantalu, when useless household articles are thrown into a fire made of
wood and cow-dung cakes. Girls dance around the bonfire, singing songs
in praise of the gods, the spring and the harvest. The significance of
the bonfire, in which is burnt the agricultural wastes and firewood is
to keep warm during the last lap of winter.

On the second day of Pongal, the puja or act of ceremonial worship is
performed when rice is boiled in milk outdoors in a earthenware pot and
is then symbolically offered to the sun-god along with other oblations.
All people wear traditional dress and markings, and their is an
interesting ritual where husband and wife dispose off elegant ritual
utensils specially used for the puja. In the village, the Pongal
ceremony is carried out more simply but with the same devotion. In
accordance with the appointed ritual a turmeric plant is tied around the
pot in which the rice will be boiled. The offerings include the two
sticks of sugar-cane in background and coconut and bananas in the dish. A
common feature of the puja, in addition to the offerings, is the kolam,
the auspicious design which is traditionally traced in white lime
powder before the house in the early morning after bathing.

The Third Day
The third day is known as Mattu Pongal, the day of Pongal for cows.
Multi-colored beads, tinkling bells, sheaves of corn and flower garlands
are tied around the neck of the cattle and then are worshiped. They are
fed with Pongal and taken to the village centers. The resounding of
their bells attract the villagers as the young men race each other’s
cattle. The entire atmosphere becomes festive and full of fun and
revelry. Arati is performed on them, so as to ward off the evil eye.
According to a legend, once Shiva asked his bull, Basava, to go to the
earth and ask the mortals to have an oil massage and bath every day and
to eat once a month. Inadvertently, Basava announced that everyone
should eat daily and have an oil bath once a month. This mistake enraged
Shiva who then cursed Basava, banishing him to live on the earth
forever. He would have to plough the fields and help people produce more
food. Thus the association of this day with cattle.

The Fourth Day
The Fourth day is known as Knau or Kannum Pongal day. On this day, a
turmeric leaf is washed and is then placed on the ground. On this leaf
are placed, the left overs of sweet Pongal and Venn Pongal, ordinary
rice as well as rice colored red and yellow, betel leaves, betel nuts,
two pieces of sugarcane, turmeric leaves, and plantains. In Tamil Nadu
women perform this ritual before bathing in the morning. All the women,
young and old, of the house assemble in the courtyard. The rice is
placed in the centre of the leaf, while the women ask that the house and
family of their brothers should prosper. Arati is performed for the
brothers with turmeric water, limestone and rice, and this water is
sprinkled on the kolam in front of the house.

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