A Detailed Research of The India Thai Pongal Festival

Thai Pongal Festival in India-research paper

Thai Pongal is a Harvest festival of Tamil Nadu; the main reason for the festival is to celebrate the return of the sun to the northern hemisphere. Thai Pongal is one of the most important/popular Hindu festivals of the year.

Thai Pongal is one of the important festivals because most of India relies on agriculture to generate an income. Thai Pongal is sort of like Thanksgiving in America because of how important it is. It is held in the month of Thai (January) during the season when rice and other types of cereals sugar-cone, and turmeric (an essential ingredient in Tamil cooking) are harvested.

The name Thai Pongal actually means “Boiling Over”. The Thai Pongal festival will usually fall on the 14th or 15th of January and is the quintessential Tamil Festival. It is a traditional occasion for giving thanks to all the things of nature and for celebrating the life cycles that would “give them grain”. Most people in India believe that Knotty family problems will be solved with the advent of the Tamil month which is a traditional month for weeding’s. This is a four day long Harvest Festival.

The first day of Thai Pongal Harvest Festival is celebrated as the Bhogi Festival in honor of lord Indra the supreme ruler of clouds that gave them rain. On the first day they pay Lord Indra Homage (Respect) for the abundance of the harvest that is said to bring prosperity to their land. Another ritual that happens on this day is Bhogi Mantalu. Bhogi Mantalu is where people take useless household articles and throw them into a fire made of wood and cow-dung cakes. While girls dance around the bonfire, singing songs in praise of the gods, the spring and the harvest. The importance of the bonfire is where the burnt agriculture wastes and firewood it is supposed to keep everyone warm during the last lap of winter.

During the second day of Thai Pongal, the puja also known as an act of ceremonial worship is preformed when rice is boiled in milk outside inside of an earthenware pot and is then offered to the Sun-God along with other things such as two sticks of sugar-cone a coconut and bananas. Everyone has to wear a traditional dress and markings. But there is a special ritual where the husband and wife get rid of elegant ritual utensils that are used for Puja. They tie a turmeric plant around the pot in which the rice will be boiled. A typical offering is the Kolam, the auspicious design which is traditionally traced in white lime powder around the house, in the morning after bathing.

The third day of Thai Pongal is called Mattu Pongal (the day for cows.) Also multi colored beads, bells, corn, and flower garlands are tied around the necks of the cattle, and then are worshiped. The young boys race each other and their cattle. They say the entire atmosphere becomes festive and full of fun and revelry at that time. Arati (The evil eye) is performed on them. Apparently they tell this old legend at the festival “Ounce Shiva asked his bull Basava to go to the earth and ask the mortals to have an oil massage and bath every day and to eat ounce a month. The Basava announced that everyone should eat every day, and have an oil bath ounce a month. This mistake enraged Shiva and then cursed Basava, banishing him to live on the earth forever. He would have to plow through fields and help people produce more food.” That is the reason for the day with the cattle.

The fourth day of Thai Pongal is called Kannum Pongal day. On the fourth day the turmeric leaf will be washed and is placed on the ground, on the leaf they put leftovers of a sweet Pongal and Venn Pongal, ordinary rice with some rice that is colored red and yellow , betel leaves, betel nuts, two pieces of sugar-cone, turmeric leaves, and plantains. Women usually will do this ritual before they take their baths in the morning. All of the women of their household have to go to their courtyard and while the rice is placed on the leaf they have to ask their family to prosper. Arati is typically preformed for the brothers with turmeric water, limestone and rice, and the water is sprinkled on the kolam in front of the house.

Thai Pongal is associated with many legends but one of the most popular is the legend of Govardhan Mountain, and the legend of lord Shiva and his bull Nandi. Well according to the legend Govardhan Mountain, Lord Krishna lifted the mountain on his finger on Bhogi, which is the first day of Thai Pongal, to protect the cattle and people from Indra, an angry rain god. And for the legend of lord Shiva I talked about it in the paragraph about the third day of Thai Pongal.

Thai Pongal is truly a special Harvest Festival and some of the things in here do seem a little crazy but that is okay because that is there culture. JJJ