PONGAL(பொங்கல்) - THE HARVESTING FESTIVAL

Pongal is the harvesting festival which is celebrated by south indians majorly the Tamil people around the world apart from religions and castes.

Pongal festival - தமிழர் திருநாள்

    This article is about the pongal festival celebration.The pongal festival is mainly celebrated as the thanks giving festival by the farmers.which is also called தமிழர் திருநாள்(thamizhar Thirunal)

    The pongal festival is celebrated in 4 days

    * Bogi pongal

    * Thai Pongal

    * Maattu pongal

    * Kaanum pongal

1. Bogi pongal - போகி பொங்கல்

          

Bogi pongal - போகி பொங்கல்

    The Bogi pongal is the 1st day of pongal festival. Which is celebrated at last date of Tamil month (margali - மார்கழி). During the Bogi pongal, the people burns the old products in home by doing this people believes that bad things happened  in previous year is also burned along with old products and pray for new good things going to happen in furture.

2. Thai pongal - தை பொங்கல்

    Thai pongal is the 2nd day of pongal festival which is the important day of festival. Literally the pongal festival is celebrated for this day. The thai pongal is celebrated at 1st day Tamil month thai (தை) so the name is called as thai pongal. Thai pongal is celebrated for say thanks to the sun. The sun helps the farmers for cultivation so the farmers gives their tribute by celebrating the thai pongal.

Traditional pongal pot - பொங்கல் பானை

  During thai pongal, the family members are gathered together and prepare the pongal recipe in traditional pot. Pongal recipe is prepared by the ingreidents of harvested Rice, jaggery, Ghee.The above ingredients are mixed and stirred together in traditional pot to make pongal recipe. After that the pongal recipe is served in banana leaf along with harvested sugarcane, bananas, other holy products for giving tribute to the Sun by praying.

3. Maattu pongal - மாட்டு பொங்கல்

    

Cattle decoration for maattu pongal

    The 3rd day of pongal celebration is Maattu pongal which is celebrated for giving tribute to bulls, cows .The cattles are helping farmers during cultivation so the farmers celebrate the Maattu pongal by thanks giving to cattles

World famous jallikattu

   During Maattu pongal the cattles like bulls, cows, buffaloes are decorated with special things. The farmers prays the cattles like a god because they believes the cow is goddess Gomatha (கோமாதா). During Maattu pongal, the world famous Jallikattu is played by the men. In jallikattu the bulls are released from the entrance gate and the players are tries to catch them. The jallikattu is very dangerous game but the thamilans played the game for traditional. The jallikattu is very old which is painted on rocks in sindus valley. The bulls are trained for more than a years for this jallikattu apart from game jallikattu also includes prestige of bull owners.

4. Kaanum ponga - காணும் பொங்கல்

     

       The last and final day of pongal celebration is kaanum pongal which is celebrated for strong the relationship with relatives, friends and neighbors.The kaanum pongal is also know as kanni pongal here kanni means girl because the last day of pongal festival is celebrated mostly by girls by wearing traditional saree.

People crowd for kaanum pongal - marina beach

       During the kaanum pongal, the people are gathered together in public places like River,Beaches,Temple,Ground, Tourists spots etc.. Where they collaborate each other and share our thoughts. Here the children are playing traditional games. The main objective of Kaanum pongal is just relaxing and strong the relationship.

The most beautiful think of pongal festival is which is celebrated across the world with lot of joy and happiness apart from barriers like religion,caste,country,status.