Pongal is a traditional harvest festival, which signals
the end of the traditional farming season. A Feast for farmers to share their crops and thank the God of Sun, The earth and the cattle for the bountiful harvest. Ponggal comes from the word Ponga which means boil or boil over.
Pongal marks the start of the auspicious month of Thai, a time where Tamil Indians give thanks for the blessings of the past year. The term Pongal also refers to the sweetened rice porridge which is normally cooked on Pongal day. This Pongal rice has an important meaning to the Indian community. If it boils well, the family can look forward to happiness and blessing, and a good year
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.
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