Pongal festival
'| Thai Pongal | |
|---|---|
 Thai Pongal | |
| Significance | Thanksgiving or Harvest festival. Thanking the sun god for agricultural abundance |
| Date | First day of the tenth month of Thai in the Tamil calendar |
Pongal
Pongal is a festival celebrated all over Tamil nadu. It is a harvest festival, where the farmers express their thanks giving to the elements responsible for a bumper harvest.
Pongal is a four day celebration.
The first day of the festival is called Bhogi, where old and unused and unneeded things are burnt away.
Pongal is celebrated on the first day of the Thai month, so it is also called Thai Pongal.
In Tamilnadu, Pongal is even more significant than Deepavali. On the day of Pongal, rice and pulses are cooked in milk and offered to the Sun God and the family deity, as a sign of reverence.
On the Mattu Pongal day, the day which is the day of thanks giving for the bullock and the cow who are responsible for their livelihood.
Kaanum Pongal is the day when the family visits their friends and relatives, offering sweetmeats and sharing among themselves. They also visit near by temples and picnic spots. The beaches and other public places are extremely crowded during this time.
| Maatu Pongal | |
|---|---|
 Maatu Pongal | |
| Significance | Maatu pongal is a festival celebrated together by the villagers to thank the cows for their favour in farming. |
| Date | Second day of the tenth month of Thai in the Tamil calendar |
Cattle play an important role in the traditional Indian farmstead be it with regards to the provision of dairy products, its use for ploughing and transport and its provision of fertilizer. This explains the Tamil reference to cattle as wealth. On the day after Pongal, cattle are felicitated. In rural Tamil Nadu, adventurous games such as the Jallikkattu or taming the wild bull are features of the day. Maattu Pongal is intended to demonstrate our recognition and affection to cattle and decorate them with garlands, apply kungumam (kumkum) on their foreheads and are feed with a mixture of venn pongal, jaggery,honey,banana and other fruits
Kanu Pidi is a tradition that the ladies and young girls of the house follow. Women feed birds and pray for the well being of their brothers. Women of the family place different kinds of coloured rice, cooked vegetables, banana and sweet pongal on a ginger or turmeric leaf and invite the crows, which descend in hordes to share and enjoy the "Kaka pidi, Kanu pidi" feast. Women offer prayers in the hope that the brother-sister ties may remain forever strong like the family of crows.
Maatu pongal is a festival celebrated together by the villagers to thank the cows for their favour in farming. People bathe their cattle and paint their horns with colourful paints. In the evening people offer prayings to Lord Ganesh made out of mud[clarification needed] and all the cattle of the village are gathered together and are decorated with garland, manjalthanni (turmeric water) only for cows, oil, shikakai, kumkum is applied on the forehead and fed with a mixture of venn pongal, Jaggery, honey, fruits etc. At the people torch out of coconut leaves and burn with fire and run around cattles thrice and run to the border of the village and drop their,[clarification needed] this ritual is performed to remove all Drishti.
