Pongal – Harvest Festival Of South India
June 24, 2008
In an agriculture based civilization the harvest plays an important part. Farmers, who cultivate land, depend on cattle, timely rains and the Sun for a bountiful and successful harvest. Therefore, traditional Indian harvest festivals are held once a year to express their gratitude.
The Pongal festival is one such festival in the Tamil tradition of thanksgiving ceremonies held to celebrate and thank the spirits of nature, the Sun and farm animals for helping provide a rich and abundant harvest. It is a festival to encourage social cohesiveness and unite people by bringing them together. Held every year particularly among the farming community, the festival of Pongal marks the end of harvesting season. This is when the markets start receiving stacks of sugarcanes, turmeric saplings and a horde of farm products. The run-up to Pongal is as exciting as celebrating the occasion that is believed to bring in prosperity. Pongal is celebrated in South Indian States with much excitement and enthusiasm.
The South Indian festival of Pongal begins with early family celebrations, as every member of the family gets up early in the morning, bathes, puts on new clothes and gathers in the front of the garden to cook the traditional pongal or rice pudding. The front garden is pre-prepared for this ceremonious cooking and decorated with kolam drawings. Some Hindu scholars believe that the rice is ceremoniously cooked on Thai Pongal, because of its importance as a potent symbol of auspiciousness and fertility. The evenings are spent attending cultural events or visiting relatives and friends. Traditional events like ox-cart races and other sports involving bulls are organised in villages.
Deriving its name from the rice pudding made from freshly harvested rice, milk and jaggery, each of the four days has special religious significance where most urban people celebrate second day as the main festival. On the first day, people clean out their homes thoroughly and all unwanted things are thrown in the bonfire lit in the evening. Actual celebrations begin on the second day with the worship of Surya, the Sun God Surya. Women rise before sunrise to make elaborate kolum patterns in front of their doorways or home with coloured rice flour to welcome the sun. Everybody wears new clothes and new utensils or household items are bought. The four day celebration of Pongal marks a period of plenty, peace and happiness. bountiful harvest. Families gather to rejoice and share their joy and their harvests with others.
All four days of Pongal have their own significance as separate deities are worshiped on each day. On the last day of Pongal, farm animals get a special treatment, when they are allowed to rest instead of spending the day ploughing and pulling carts. They are bathed, their horns polished and painted with bright colours, decorated with beads, bells, and garlands of flowers placed around their necks.
Associated with cleaning and burning of the unwanted, the South Indian festival of Pongal symbolizes the destruction of evil.
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