Pongal, The Hindu Harvest Festival Post 2

Each day of the four-day festival has its own name and distinct fashion of celebration. 

Day 1: Bhogi Pongal 

Bhogi Pongal is a day for the family, for domestic activities and of being together with the members of the household. This day is celebrated in honor of Lord 

Indra, "the Ruler of Clouds and Giver of Rains". 

On the first day of Pongal a huge bonfire is lit at dawn in front of the house and all old and useless items are set ablaze, symbolic of beginning a fresh new 

year. The bonfire burns through the night as young people beat little drums and dance around it. Homes are cleaned and decorated with "Kolam" - floor 

designs drawn in the white paste of newly harvested rice with outlines of red mud. Often pumpkin flowers are set into cow-dung balls and placed among the 

patterns. Fresh harvest of rice, turmeric and sugarcane is brought in from the field as preparation for the following day. 

Day 2: Surya Pongal 

The second day is dedicated to Lord Surya, the Sun God, who is offered boiled milk and jaggery. A plank is placed on the ground, a large image of the Sun 

God is sketched on it and Kolam designs are drawn around it. This icon of the Sun God is worshipped for divine benediction as the new month of 'Thai' 

begins. 

Day 3: Mattu Pongal 

This third day is meant for the cattle ('mattu') - the giver of milk and puller of the plough. The farmer's 'dumb friends' are given a good bath, their horns are 

polished, painted and covered with metal caps, and garlands are put around their necks. The pongal that has been offered to the gods is then given to the 

cattle to eat. They are then taken out to the racing tracks for cattle race and bullfight - an event full of festivity, fun, frolic and revelry. 

Day 4: Kanya Pongal 

The fourth and final day marks the Kanya Pongal, when birds are worshipped. Girls prepare colored balls of cooked rice and keep them in the open for birds 

and fowls to eat. On this day sisters also pray for their brothers' happiness  and give them new clothes.

Like all Hindu festivals, Pongal too has some interesting legends attached to it. But surprisingly, this festival has little or no mention in the Puranas, which 

are usually bristled with tales and legends related with festivals. This is perhaps because Pongal is preeminently a Dravidian harvest festival and has 

somehow managed to keep itself away from the preponderance of Indo-Aryan influences. 

The Mt. Govardhan Tale 

The most popular Pongal legend is the one associated with the first day of the celebrations when Lord Indra is worshipped. The story behind it is, on this day 

Indra being honored by all, became proud and arrogant. To teach him a lesson, Lord Krishna asked his cowherd friends to worship Mount Govardhan instead 

of Indra on the Bhogi Pongal day. 

Awfully infuriated, Indra sent forth the clouds to generate thunder, lightning and heavy rains and flood the land. But, as the tale goes, Lord Krishna lifted up 

the Govardhan Mountain on his little finger and sheltered the farmers, cowherd and their cattle. Indra then begged Shri Krishna's forgiveness and the latter 

re-permitted Bhogi celebrations in honor of Indra. 

The Nandi Bull Story 

According to another legend associated with Mattu Pongal, the third day of celebrations, Lord Shiva once asked his Nandi bull to go to earth and deliver a 

special message to his disciples: "Have an oil bath everyday, and food once a month." 

But the baffled bovine failed to deliver the correct message. He told the people that Shiva asked them to "have an oil bath once a month, and food 

everyday." The enraged Shiva then ordered Nandi to stay back on earth and help the people plough the fields, since they would now need to grow more 

grains.

Pongal, The Hindu Harvest Festival Post 1

This is one of those occasions when Christianity has embraced and converted a festval from another religious tradition into a Christian Feast. Pongal is celebrated in Tamil Nadu as a 4 day Hindu festival and holiday. They spend the first day cleaning out and burning all the old linen and appliances and replacing them with new things in preparation for the celebrations. The second day is about the offerings of food and harvested crops to the gods. These are then eaten by the cows and the crows. The third day is the day of the cows. All the cows, goats and sheep are washed and in the evening they make a fire of coconut tree branches and hay across the road and make the animals jump through the fire to scare away spirits. I can't remember what the fourth day is bit I have copied a web site which may interest you.

Seventy per cent of India's population lives in villages, and a vast majority of people solely depend on agriculture. As a result, we find that most Hindu festivals are directly or indirectly linked to agriculture 

and related activities. Pongal is one such big festival, celebrated every year in mid January - mostly in the south of India and especially in Tamil Nadu - to mark the harvest of crops and a special thanksgiving to God, the sun, the earth and the cattle. 

Pongal is celebrated during the same time as 'Bhogali Bihu' in the North Eastern State of Assam, Lohri in Punjab, 'Bhogi' in Andhra Pradesh and 'Makar Sankranti' in the rest of the country, including Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal.

What's Pongal? 

'Pongal' comes from the word 'ponga' which literally means 'boil' and so 'pongal' connotes 'spillover' or that which is 'overflowing'. It's also the name of the 

special sweet dish cooked on the Pongal day. Pongal continues through the first four days of the 'Thai' month that starts on January 14 every year. 

Seasonal Festivity 

Pongal is directly associated with the annual cycle of seasons. It not only marks the reaping of the harvest, but also the withdrawal of the southeast monsoons in southern India. As the cycle of season rings out the old and ushers in the new, so is the advent of Pongal connected with cleaning up the old, 

burning down rubbish, and welcoming in new crops. 

Pongal follows the winter solstice and marks the favorable course of the sun. On the first day, the sun is worshipped, signifying its movement from Cancer to 

Capricorn. This is also why, in other parts of India, this harvest festival and thanksgiving is called 'Makar Sankranti'. [Sanskrit Makar = Capricorn] 

For Pongal on Tuesday we celebrated Mass with special offerings and then had a feast to which we invited some of the Sisters of St Anne from the local hospital and had lots of special foods whose names I forget.

Namdroling Temple, Kurshalnagar

On the weekend of the 11th and 12th of January, Fr Immanuel and 4 of the Brothers and I visited the Tibetan Buddhist Monastery near Kushalnagar. People call it the Golden Temple for reasons that will be obvious when you look at the photos. Their web site is:  http://www.namdroling.org if you are interested in learning more.
There are thousands of monks and nuns there.  I learned something very important. The only reason we experience disappointment is that events and circumstances do not meet our expectations. There are two ways to think about this. Either we can blame the experiences or we can recognize that our expectations are the problem. This is a very buddhist approach which is lucky because the only other thing I got from our visit today to the Namdroling Temple 80 km west of Mysore are some photos and some unfulfilled expectations. It is a huge place and when we arrived I was so excited and explained what I knew to the Brothers. I asked a few of the monks if we could go in and join the chanting community in puja as they were chanting and banging drums and gongs. The answer was no. We could watch from outside and take photos but not join them.
The place is full of tourists and souvenir shops with crappy stuff. It is the Indian way of coping with the intrusion into their monastic life on the weekends. They carry on as usual and put up signs to protect themselves and shut everyone else out.
We booked into a hostel just outside the monastery and enjoyed a quiet time but once you have taken all the photos you can, all that is left is to go. We went to Kushalnagar that night and then headed home the next day. I shared a twin room with Fr Immanuel so I hope he got some sleep through my snoring.
On my 29th Anniversary I woke up with a priest in a foreign country. When I got to Mysore I Skyped Jen and had a good talk. 

To Michelle who was so jealous of me for going to a buddhist monastery, the only way you get to play with them is to join them.

Christmas and New Year in Kerala

It is 2014. I have to extend my finger further to the right to add the 4 instead of the 3. We are all living in another year. It is 10 years since 2004 when Shell did Year 12, 20 years since 1994 in Ballarat and so on back to 90 years since 1924 when dad was born.
Who knows what the future holds and where we will all be in 2024.

I know where I am now. I am in my comfortable room at Chevalier Bhavan with the priests and brothers. Since I was here at Easter 2012 I have not lost the connection with this place. They accept me as one of their Australian Brothers and I am part of the community. They are fairly protective of me and keep an eye on things for me. Today Brother Anthony took me into the city so that I could buy some second hand books for the Brothers in Mysore. I want to extend their library so that they become avid readers. I bought about 20 books for an average of $4.00 each. I hope to send some over when I get home. Until Br Greg gets here in mid-year they will need to keep reading and writing about what they read.

I also bought some printer cartridges for printing books for the sisters. They also need to keep reading but their level is not as sophisticated so I download books for them from a system Olga found for me and print them off. When I wake up in the middle of the night (I am still on Australian time I think) I will download some more and print them off when I get to Mysore.
I have written the Brothers Exam which they will do on Wednesday Jan 8th. I will give them two days practice on Monday and Tuesday then administer it Wednesday. After that I have a number of articles from the Warrnambool Standard and Herald Sun to read and answer questions about. Thanks to Jenni for that idea.

I had a long chat with Fr Tijo this morning about how they learn English. For most who enter the houses of training, English is pretty sketchy. Most have done it as a subject until Year 12 but their mastery is dependent on how much emphasis the school gave to it and how good the teachers were. Usually both of these are pretty weak. So my job is not so much to teach them English but to move them along a bit in writing and speaking. For the sisters it is much worse. That is why there training is so long: two years as aspirants/postulants, two years of philosophy, a year of Novitiate and then two more years of Theology. They need this long to master the language as well as the subjects.

When I go back to Mysore on Sunday morning with Fr Gerald I will have 13 days left to teach them as I come back here to Bangalore on the evening of the 22nd for a couple of days before flying out on the 25th. I have a couple of things to do before I leave here and will have a couple of days break at the Priest's insistence.
I am enjoying this phase of my adventure and look forward to the last sprint to the line. You all seem so close and yet so far away. Brucknell is tomorrow and the whole Vogels clan will gather. I will miss them but be there is spirit. The children are no doubt having a wow of a time in Cambodia and will need to dry out for a while when the party ends.
May God bless us all as we are spread out over the globe and bring us safely back together soon.
Happy New Year to all.
Gerard in India.