HAPPY PONGAL!! SANKRANTI!! LOHRI!! BIHU!! UTTARAYAN!! Share your 2016 celebrations...

periamma · Jan 12, 2016

Hi Friends share your tradition of celebrating Pongal, Sankranthi, Lohri, Bihu and Uttarayana.

Pongal is celebrated as a thanksgiving day in South Tamilnadu. First thanking the Natural source The Sun, then the Manpower who works hard to give us food grains and finally the animals which are used in the agricultural work.

On the first day of Tamil Month Thai, we make Pongal using the first harvested Rice. Three stones are used as stoves, Palmyrah leaves are used as firewood to make the pongal.Before that we keep the Brass lamp in front of the house, spread a Plantain leaf in front of it and keep all vegetables on the leaf as a symbol of an offering to SunGod.

A bronze pot is placed on the stove and it is filled with water,Milk and coconut water .Then it is heated till the water boiland overflow outside the pot.At this moment we put rice in the pot and make pongal .After the rice is well cooked ,a cup of cooked rice is kept in the plantain leaf and camphor arti is done to Sun.This is the way of our Tradition of Pongal clebration.

Tomorrow i will share the the MAATTU PONGAL (Thanks giving for bullocks) celebration.

periamma · Jan 12, 2016

Wish all our IL community members HAPPY PONGAL.
Friends please share your tradition of celebrations which make us still closer.

swathi14 · Jan 13, 2016

Re: HAPPY PONGAL!! SANKRANTI!! LOHRI!! BIHU!! UTTARAYAN!! Share your 2016 celebration

PERIAMMA,

pongal wishes.

Now the 'pot pongal' has become cooker pongal. but the festival mood remains the same now.

For Bhogi my MIL still keeps all the old items outside the compound and will ask my kids to lit the old items. She will buy a new molam and my son will beat it for some time.

On pongal i will put a big kolam and colour it( i will share this year pongal kolam later)

For pongal, new dresses for kids alone and once the paal (milk) boils everybody will shout pongalo pongal. afterwards vising the relatives, collecting gifts (!!), tasting the pongal - the whole day will be a fun filled one.

Afterwards watching the films in TV.... I luv this festival. Though city pongal is not like village pongal.. i enjoy it.

andal

periamma · Jan 13, 2016

Re: HAPPY PONGAL!! SANKRANTI!! LOHRI!! BIHU!! UTTARAYAN!! Share your 2016 celebration

Hi Swathi14 Thanks for sharing your Pongal celebrations.

knbg · Jan 13, 2016

Re: HAPPY PONGAL!! SANKRANTI!! LOHRI!! BIHU!! UTTARAYAN!! Share your 2016 celebration

Dear Periamma,

Your post reminded me of lovely pongal celebrations in our native during childhood.

A day or two before the festivities we start packing the new clothes and other stuff like bhogi melam etc.,and reach our native- definitely we would not forget the special edition newspapers and magazines for my grandparents who live there.

Then we reach the native place- or rather a junction by bus and from there to the village by bullock cart/cycle. We would be welcomed by spic and span , newly whitewashed house with beautiful kolams adorned with pumpkin flowers on a ball of cowdung.The house would smell of freshly harvested paddy, with people pounding the rice in back yard..A full roundup of the big house and checking on cows and new calves if any, seeing if the bulbul which was nesting last summer was still there, talking to farm hands and gobbling home made paal khoa and pulling out the swing and pallangkuzhi would be the agenda on day before bhogi....

Bhogi, with still sleep on eyes, we would be pulled from our bed and taken to front yard where old stuff would be burnt and we would play the bhogi melam...A visit to temples a good lunch, nap and getting ready for the big day .

Pongal, waking up early morning and helping?!? with the kolams ,a quick bath and wearing new clothes, then Pongal made in earthen pots decorated with turmeric, vibuthi, kumkum and fresh turmeric garland is made in open inner courtyard with all of us saying "POngalo pongal" all fresh produce like pumpkin, sweet potato,brinjal etc and a big feast with prayers to Surya bhagavan is done. Then snake charmers would bring big cobras- they beleive it is auspicious to see snakes on pongal day and we give them gifts.

Mattupongal, our cattle would be decorated and puja would be done in the cow shed, today too a grand feast! Evening , all the bullock carts would parade from the temple and go round the village, with everyone shouting in joy,"Pongalo pongal, maatu pongal"

Kanum pongal, after the formalities of kanu , visitors keep coming continuously- all the local heads, people who are from cities and came for pongal,then farm hands and in the big hall at home, they all would be gifted sarees, dhotis with apt dakshinas. Children and youngsters would go to movies, but mostly for us it is the temple visits and on some rare occasions koothu- the native folk art.

The next day the cowdung balls with pumpkin flowers that were kept on kolams the whole month of margazhi would be taken and drowned in the warer way from the village lake which would irrigate the fields.

Then packing up and back home with sweet memories and anticipation for next pongal.

Thanks for the thread periamma, Happy Pongal to you and family!

yazhinibama · Jan 13, 2016

Re: HAPPY PONGAL!! SANKRANTI!! LOHRI!! BIHU!! UTTARAYAN!! Share your 2016 celebration

அனைவருக்கும் இனிய பொங்கல் திருநாள் நல் வாழ்த்துக்கள்.... தோழியரே

vinutnak · Jan 13, 2016

Re: HAPPY PONGAL!! SANKRANTI!! LOHRI!! BIHU!! UTTARAYAN!! Share your 2016 celebration

wishing u a happy pongal and all ur wishes come true and may u achieve everything u desire and don't forget 2 put pongal.

periamma · Jan 13, 2016

Re: HAPPY PONGAL!! SANKRANTI!! LOHRI!! BIHU!! UTTARAYAN!! Share your 2016 celebration

Bhargavi Wow what a description of Pongal.This is what typical village pongal .Thanks for sharing .

"The next day the cowdung balls with pumpkin flowers that were kept on kolams the whole month of margazhi would be taken and drowned in the warer way from the village lake which would irrigate the fields."

Bhargs we name it as "siruveettu Pongal" A small model house with red soil is built with a small kitchen ,a hall and two Thinnais in front.Then on the First friday of the month girls from the age five to ten cook the sweet pongal in a small pot in a small stove made of clay.so our elders train us in cooking from that age itself.Oh my God what a golden memories.

wish you a Happy Pongal

periamma · Jan 13, 2016

Re: HAPPY PONGAL!! SANKRANTI!! LOHRI!! BIHU!! UTTARAYAN!! Share your 2016 celebration

நன்றி யாழினி .தங்களுக்கும் என் மனம் நிறைந்த பொங்கல் வாழ்த்துக்கள்