Happy Pongal/Sankaranti

Dear Samayalites,Friends,Readers,

Hope that your Newyear has started with new wishes and dreams.May The Divine be with you all in all your endeavors.

My First post in this NewYear is starting with Pongal Wishes.Pongal or the Harvest Festival of South India-as i explain to my American friends as Indian Thanksgiving.We thank the SUN god(Surya Bhagavan) for giving a good harvest by cooking the newly harvest rice from fields and offering it to the God(it is done before Sunrise) and asking his blessing to continue the next year.It is celebrated as Pongal in TamilNadu and Sankaranti in other parts of India.Pongal is also called Farmer's Festival(Ulavar Thirunaal).

Read more here.

Back home Pongal mood is set the night before starting from choosing kolam/rangoli to decorate the front entrance/patio.

kolam / rangoli

Then the following morning,wake up before sunrise.The stage for Pongal pooja is set in the front of the home.All kinds of vegetables,sugarcane are placed as offering along with 3 brick/clay stones to be posed as Stove on which the pongal pot is placed.The newly harvest rice is cooked and offered to God.

pongal pot

Wish You all a Happy Pongal and Happy Sankaranti.Meet you all after Pongal with sweet pongal(sakarai pongal) dish.


Pics - http://www.pongalfestival.org