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.