Celebration

Today I would like to describe our Hindu Tamil festival which is called "Thai Pongal". Thai Pongal is celebrated on the first day of the first month of the Tamil calendar, in the Christian calendar between 12th and 15th of the month of January. The meaning of this festival in Thai is the first month of the Tamil Almanac, and Pongal is a dish of sweet concoction of rice, moong dal, jaggery and milk.

Thai Pongal is a thanks giving ceremony in which farmers celebrate the event to thank the spirits of nature spirit, the sun and their farm animals such as cows, goats, and the rest of the birds and animals for their assistance in providing a successful harvest.

Father or mother start the cooking and the rest of the family dutifully assist them or watch the event. When the water is boiled, the rice is put into a pot - after a member of the family ceremoniously puts three handfuls of rice in first. The other ingredients of this special dish are chakkarai (brown cane sugar) or katkandu (sugar candy), milk (cow's milk or coconut milk), roasted green gram (payaru), raisins, cashew nuts and few pods of cardamom. When the meal is ready, it is first put on a banana leaf and the family pray for few minutes to thank the nature spirit, the sun and farmers.Then the meal is served with fruits such as bananas and mangoes among the family. Later it will be shared with neighbors, friends and relatives.