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Resources » Tamilnadu culture & festivals » Festivals in Tamilnadu
Pongal festival celebration in Tamilnadu, India
Pongal is a festival of farmers who show thanks to the Sun and his bulls. With the help of his bulls and Sun God's grace he could harvest a good crops. So, he also pray the God to give the same kind of high yielding in the coming years too. The festival is celebrated in all parts of the world with great enthusiasm.
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Pongal is a thanks giving festival widely celebrated in Tamilnadu. This is the festival of farmers. Generally the festival is celebrated in the middle of January every year. After one year of hard work, farmers take their produce to the market for selling. As a resul of selling his produce he is getting enough money by which he can clear his outstanding debt and fulfilling his other family obligations. It is one of the best indian festivals celebrated across the world. Last few years, Pongal Celebrated in Germany, USA, Canada, Japan, Russia, Australia and many more. This shows that the people are are perceiving interest in the celebration of Pongal. This festival is completely pollution free unlike Deepavali also least money is sufficient to celebrate the festivals. The meaning of Pongal festival is thanks giving to the Sun God. As per the Hindu mythology Sun is considered to be the God because he is the creater of this wonderful world without sun there won't be any plants resulting vanishing of all other animals. So, all Hindu people worship Sun. In the same manner, a farmer who work hard in his field won't get good crops without the consideration of Sun. Just after the harvesting, all farmers of Tamilnadu pay a tribute to the Sun God in the form of Pongal which he prepared from the first Rice, Jaggery and other farm produce. In this festival, only the farm produce should be included like Rice, Jaggery, Pulses, Sugarcane, Turmeric, Dry ginger etc.
How to celebrate the pongal festival
Pongal is a name of the festival widely celebrated in Tamilnadu and literally Rice added with jaggery. We can call it as a sweet rice dish. On the day of pongal, the family members wake up in the early morning and take bath with cold water. They used to wear colorful new dress on the even of pongal celebration. In front of the house facing east they make mud stove for cooking pongal. With a new mud pot,
Ingredients required for cooking pongal
1. 1 Kg of raw rice freshly harvested.
2. 1/2 kg of Jaggery and make it powder.
3. 100 gms Cashew nut.
4. 100 gms Dried Grapes.
5. 100 gms Ghee
6. 10 gms Dried ginger.
7. 300 gms Arhar Dal (Pulses)
8. Turmeric Leaf for making a knot in the neck of the pongal pot.
9. Sugarcane with leaf.
How to make pongal recipe
1. Heat the water as soon as it starts boil
2. Put the raw rice and Dal in combine and cook till half cooked.
3. Add jaggery (powdered) and stir well.
4. Add 10 gram dried ginger .
5. Add cashew nut and dried grapes.
6. Finally add 100gms of ghee.
7. Bring down from the mud stove and tie with the turmeric leaves on the neck of the pongal pot
On completion of the pongal preparation, take a banana leaf and put some amount of pongal from the mud pot, few slices of coconut, banana three pieces, sugarcane and pay this as a tribute to the sun God. On this moment, just pray with family and friends and say with the folded hands facing the rising sun 'I thank you for the crops yielded this year and I also expecting the same amount of crops in the coming years too'. The same food may be shared to all near and dears with lot of pongal wishes. This is the only thanks giving festival of this kind celebrated across the world.
What is Mattu pongal?
The next day to Pongal festival is 'Mattu pongal' means- in the same way he also wants to show his sincere thanks to the Bulls he used to plough his field. So on the day of Mattu Pongal he used to take his bulls to the pond and clean with plenty of water. After that he used to colour the horns of his bulls and feed his bulls with pongal. He worship his bulls treating it as a 'God'. He used to feed lot of pongal, sugarcane and other farm produce. On this day, there will be a bull fighting competition in Tamil Nadu generally called as 'Jallikkattu'. This is really dangerous and bravery fight with strong bulls. One who made the bulls surrender and levelled on the ground will be given an attractive gift worth million rupees.
Pongal Greetings in Tamil
பொங்கும் பொங்கலை போல
உன் வாழ்வு பொங்கட்டும்
இனிக்கும் கரும்பை போல
உன் வாழ்வு இனிக்கட்டும்
இத்திருநாளில் உன் வாழ்வும் வளமும் பெருகிட
என் இனிய பொங்கல் நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்.
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