Pongal: A Festival Of Thanking Nature
What is Pongal?
India is blessed with so many cultures along with its different festivals. Every single festival carries its values and purpose. One of them is the Pongal Festival. Today, we are here for our readers to have a close look at this Festival. The Pongal festival has its values and purpose. This festival is a celebration of thanking and appreciating the Lord sun and the Lord Indra for blessing farmers with seasons best crop. The purpose behind worshipping these two gods is very general as they are the main sources of livelihood of farmers. This is four days long festival and holds a special value in the hearts of people of Tamil Nadu. Pongal is the time of festivity, joy, and celebration with a traditional dress for girls, kids, men, and women.
When it is Celebrated?
The Pongal Festival celebrations held at the same time every year. As earlier mentioned its four days long celebration. Pongal is celebrated on the third day of the Tamil month of Thai every year. All the days are classified according to their importance. Mentioning below:-
Bhogi Pandigai (January 14, 2020):- This is the starting day of the Pongal festival which lasts up to four days. This day farmers do a special pooja before harvesting. This day farmers belief to clean their house and throwing out the old materialistic things. This is the sign of getting rid of the negative vibes and thoughts and welcoming the positive ones.
Surya Pongal/Thai Pongal(January 15, 2020):- This day’s name itself defines the auspicious of the day. This day people worship the Sun for providing proper warmth and sunlight. The occasion witnessed the start of the sun’s six-month journey. The belief behind celebrating Makar Sakranti is correspondence to the belief of the Pongal Festival.
Mattu Pongal(January 16, 2020):- The third day of Pongal dedicated to the worship of cows. Cows act as a source of farming for farmers and they provide many things to them. Bull Fight is the most important phase of this festival. However, this form of celebrating is degrading nowadays due to Animal rights activists.
Katya Pongal(January 17, 2020):- Coming to this precious day, Feeding birds is an important ritual to people out there. Women feed birds with colorful rice balls namely the Kaka Pudi ritual. People decorate their homes with mango leaves and colorful flowers. On this festive day, traditional dress for girls, women, men and even kids are in great demand in the market.
Pongal is celebrated by the people of the southern part of India mainly Tamil Nadu. It’s time for Ponga! (Joy) prefer traditional dress for girls such as Banarasi sarees.
Pongal festival is incomplete without its extensive range of traditional delicacies. One such dish named Pongal carries great importance as it is an offer to Sun and to share with the family and friends. It is made by facing the rising sun, by boiling the season’s first rice with milk and sugar. Khara Pongal and Sakkarai Pongal also contribute to Pongal delicacies. Pongal is celebrated with traditional passion for food and traditional dress for girls or women and men.
Outfits To Wear
Every festival is incomplete without its traditional outfits. Men, women, and even kids all together contribute to wearing traditional outfits to maintain the essence of the festival. Men wear Veshti Sattai which is a traditional type of Dhoti with Shirt and Angavastram. Mostly they choose to wear a white outfit to symbolize peace and prosperity. Kids also keen to wear traditional dresses Pattu pavadai made out of pure silk material and small boys wear Veshti Sattai. While women dress up in traditional silk lehenga saree also know as Pavadai Davani which are a famous form of traditional dress for girls.