Pongal Festival In India, Pongal Festival Pics, Pongal Festival 2010, Pogal Festival TamilNadu

Pongal is one of the important festivals of Tamilnadu. It is celebrated every year during the harvest. This is the time Southeast monsoons withdraw and the crop is ready for the harvest. It falls in Thai, the Tamil word for Period in January. The festival initiates on the first day of the Tamil Thai Masam or Tamil Thai Month and continues for 3 days from there on. Pongal was previously a strict rural festival, however these days the city slicker too celebrate it with great devotion and fervor. The Sun god is worshipped on all these days as He is the in charge of life form sustenance. The Thai maasam is considered to be very auspicious to embark on anything new, like starting a business, traveling, getting married etc. The pongal is Sankaranti (Sankaranthi, Sankranthi) in Karnataka, India beholding the same concept, the harvest season celebration. Read on to know more….

First day:

‘Bhogi’ is celebrated on January 13. Here the villages burn all the old stuffs like old cloths, old articles and all kind of unwanted stuffs to imply the transition from Old to New.

Second day:

The Sun god is worshipped to appease him. This is on January 14 and is know as pongal. Sweet rice is cooked and when it spills over people shout “Pongalo pongal” to appease the Gods.

Third day:

“Mattu pongal” is celebrated where the cow is worshipped. The cows are bathed, painted colorfully and worshipped as they are also part of the rural life during maatu pongal. This is on January 13

Fourth day:

On January 16, ‘Thiruvalluvar Day’ is celebrated. Thiruvalluvar is an ancient poet who composed Tamil sonnets of 2 lines each advising intricately on varied aspects of life spanning across personal life, politics, household etc. There are 1,330 verses in Thirukural and is awesome. Thirukural has been translated into many world languages. This day is dedicated to Thiruvalluvar in his memory.