Thai Pongal:

A thanksgiving festival

Sri Lanka, an island of festivals is all set to usher in the very first festival of the New Year, Thai Pongal on January 14. Holidays and festivals in Sri Lanka are an essential part of the culture. Thai Pongal is a thanksgiving festival which falls at the end of the harvest season . It is also celebrated as the Harvest festival by the Tamis ,not only in Sri Lanka but also in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the Indian Union Territory of Pondicherry.

This festival, is timed by an astronomical event - the winter solstice. This happens when the sun enters the zodiac sign of Capricorn (Makara). Although the real solstice falls on December 21 , the Thai Pongal festival is celebrated in mid-January, or the Tamil month of Thai.It coincides with the rice harvest Makara Sankranthi celebrated throughout India as the winter harvest, and is usually held from January 13–15 in the Gregorian calendar (from the last day of the Tamil month Maargazhi to the third day of Thai). The tradition and customs of celebrating Pongal in Sri Lanka is same as that of Tamils in India.

Among the Sri Lankans, this festival is also known as the First Rice Festival and Ulavar Thirunaal. In Sri Lanka, rice is both a staple food and an inheritance in which deities figure prominently. Thus, the harvest festival of Pongal is one of the most significant occasion for them.

Thai refers to the name of the tenth month in the Tamil calendar, Thai .

Pongal in Tamil generally refers to festivity. On this day, the Tamil farmers honour the Sun God. Pongal is traditionally dedicated to the Sun God Surya.It marks the beginning of the northward journey of the Sun from its southernmost-limit, a movement traditionally referred to as uttarayana. Tamils thank the Sun God (Surya) for the good harvest and consecrate the first grain to him on this ‘Surya Mangalyam'.

Pongal more specifically means “boiling over” or “spill over”. The boiling over of milk in the clay pot symbolises material abundance for the household.

Pongal is also the name of a sweetened dish of rice boiled with lentils which is ritually consumed on this day.Besides rice and lentils, the ingredients of the sweet dish, Pongal dish include cardamom, jaggery, raisins, and cashew nuts. Cooking is done in sunlight, usually in a porch or courtyard, as the dish is dedicated to the Sun god, Surya.

There are two versions of pongal, one sweet the other salted.The newly cooked rice is traditionally offered to the Sun God at sunrise to demonstrate gratitude for the harvest. It is later served to the people present in the house for the ceremony generally on banana leaves. People also prepare other savories and sweets such as vadai, murukku, paayasam, visit each other and exchange greetings.The family elders present gifts to the young. As in other festivals. Tamils too decorate their homes during Thai Pongal .They use banana and mango leaves to do so and also use rice flour to embellish the floor with decorative patterns called kolam.

 Kolams are drawn with rice flour paste with the idea that ants and insects would feed on it and bless the house. At its centre is a lump of cow dung, holding a five-petal pumpkin flower, a symbol of fertility and an offering of love to the presiding deity.

The festival of Pongal is celebrated by Sri Lankans over two days. The first day is devoted to the boiling of milk in a pot to which rice, jaggery and the syrup extracted from crushed sugar cane is added. This sweet rice pudding is offered first to the Sun God, and is then eaten at the climax of a family festive meal.

The second day is dedicated to the oxen who assist the farmers in the rice fields. It is called Mattu (cattle) Pongal.Maatu Pongal is a festival celebrated together by the villagers to thank the cows for their favour in farming . People bathe their cattle and paint their horns with colourful paints.In the evening people offer prayers to Lord Ganesh.

Fact file

* The day preceding Pongal is called Bhogi when people discard old things and focus on new belongings.

* Pongal itself falls on the first day of the Tamil month of Thai (January 14 or 15). It is celebrated by boiling rice with fresh milk and jaggery in new clay pots. The rice is later topped with sugar, ghee, cashew nuts and raisins. This tradition gives Pongal its name.

* The rice is traditionally cooked at sun rise.

* The moment the milk boils over and bubbles out of the vessel, the tradition is to shout of “Pongalo Pongal!”, introduce freshly harvested rice grains in the pot and blow the sanggu (a conch).

*Tamils consider it a good sign to watch the milk boil over as it connotes good luck and prosperity.

We wish our Tamil readers a happy Thai Pongal.

Facts and pix: Internet