Happy Pongal & Tamil New Year

Wish Everyone a Happy Pongal & Tamil New Year (Tiruvalluvar Year 2048 )​

Let your life overflow with love, happiness
&
prosperity like the overflowing Pongal Pot !
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On this day we salute the farmers, our cows, bulls, oxen & agricultural cattle and the Sun for making us live in this world and for bringing prosperity to us and express our heartfelt thanks and gratitude to them.


Howe'er they roam, the world must follow still the plougher's team;Though toilsome, culture of the ground as noblest toil esteem.
Couplet Explanation:
Agriculture, though laborious, is the most excellent (form of labour); for people, though they go about (in search of various employments), have at last to resort to the farmer.

- Kural 1031, Chapter 104​

Pongal is the National Festival of Tamils. Its our Harvest Festival, New Year, Thanks Giving Festival, get together, culture, identity and everything else. Yesterday was the last day of previous year, so we clean our house, remove all dirts & clutters and make ready to welcome the new year by welcoming the first month 'Thai'. We celebrate it for 3 days. This is the first day of the Tamil month 'Thai'. We have a saying, 'When the 'Thai' is born, new doors/ways are open in our life'. I wish the same to everyone. Let new doors/paths open in your life and you attain everything that is good. Tomorrow is Pongal for the cows, bulls, ox& agriculture cattle. Today it is for farmers & sun. Day after tomorrow is Kannum Pongal - a time to celebrate and rejoice with our relatives, friends and society. Today we make Pongal (it is a dish) in new pots from the rice of freshly harvested paddy outside the house facing suns. The stove would be bricks & woods. Every family member & anyone present nearby would gather together and shout Pongalo Pongal when the rice inside the pot brims and over flows out of the pot. In cities, people would make Pongal in the terrace. But of course some would make it inside their house in gas stoves for want of space & resources. The word 'PONGAL' means overflowing'. Not only our festival but the dish is also named Pongal. When you allow polished rice to boil and overflow in lots of water it is Pongal dish. If you want sweet pongal add jaggery to it.

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Happy New Year Pongal & Tami!! Wishing you all the best in the new year!

 

Thanks joanc123.

 

You are welcome 12ss12. I sounds like lots of fun - and very busy. U.S. holidays are more spread out. I like the get together holidays the most, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year. You seem to pack them all together for one long People Party.
Do you get a National Day of Rest after all the festivities?

 

Happy Pongal and new year Tamil. Thanks for explaining your holiday to us. I love learning about everyone's cultures. We all want pretty much the same thing, peace, health and happiness for everyone. Hope you had a wonderful time.

 

Happy Pongal and Tamil! I hope you enjoy your Festival and holidays! And I hope you and your family have a happy, healthy and wonderful New year.

 

Thanks everyone. This year it has been a great Pongal for people in Tamilnadu because people have come together inspite of several ordeals and other difficulties and are resolved to deal with them fair and emerge victorious.

Happy Maattu Pongal !

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Today is the second day of Pongal. It is Pongal for cows, bulls, ox, bullocks. Thanks giving to the cows & cattle that help us in agriculture. Also its Tiruvalluvar Day who is one of our great poet and who gave us the Thirukkural.

The Tirukkural or Thirukkural (Tamil Name: திருக்குறள்), or shortly the Kural, is a classic Tamilsangam literature consisting of 1330 couplets or kurals, dealing with the everyday virtues of an individual, governance etc., Considered one of the greatest works ever written on ethics and morality, it is known for its universality and non-denominational nature.[3] It was authored by Valluvar, also known as Thiruvalluvar.

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People bathe and decorate their cows, bulls during Mattu Pongal. And also feed them with Pongal dish. They fasten the bulls to bullock-cart and take children a ride in them. We would go to our native village for Pongal. This year I din't go due to several reasons and I am celebrating with you all. I remember I rode on a bullock-cart once when I was small. My father's village had only 3 streets and in the evening of Mattu Pongal all the cows, bulls and ox which were bathed and decorated, were assembled near the village temple. It was a sight to see with the street full of decorated cows. The calves will be let loose to roam as they wish and in the night they would come back home. Cows would be garlanded and given special food. The pictures above are taken from net.

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Happy Mattu Pongal Day, 12ss12!!
Thank you for sharing your rich culture and wise heritage with us. Now I understand the message on your banner.
Man should be more like nature, rise above the flood like the coiled stem of the Lotus flower. My Mom called that Common Sense.
I'm sorry you missed some of the celebrations. And very happy you chose to celebrate with us.
Now, I'm off to plant some fruit trees.

 

What you say is entirely correct. A lotus stem or a water lily stem does not get submerged in water when the water rises, it rises above. Same way in distress & disaster when we rise above it, we progress or gain greatness. It is always very wise to listen and understand what elders say. They are our guiding force and real wealth of the society. Last year we celebrated Pongal with my grandfather. This year he is no more. That makes us a little sad but everything comes in life. He lived till 94 years and thus is a great thing.

Today is the last day of Pongal. Kaanum Pongal - kaanum means visiting or seeing. It is a day to celebrate Pongal toether with family and relatives and friends too. It is a sort of home gathering and enjoying together by indulging in sports, fun or sight seeing.

Happy Kaanum Pongal !​

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Bull fights and other sports are conducted in every village. This one was filmed during British Rule in India.



This was taken today morning in Marina Beach.
People gathered in the second largest beach to celebrate Kaanum Pongal.
Some 10 mins from my home



last years photo


This is just a part of the beach. It stretches for Kms.

I will conclude the Pongal Celebrations with this Pongal Kollams drawn by my cousin in front of her house in the street in my native place.

 

Your cousin is an accomplished artist. Such beautiful detail in her work. Thank you 12ss12 for sharing your celebration of Life.

 

12ss12, Thank you for sharing you celebration with us! It is nice to see how other countries and cultures celebrate! What a beautiful Pongal Kollams your cousin did, she is very talented! Did it take her a very long time to do it?! Enjoy the rest of your celebrations!

 

Thanks both of you. It will take hours to draw those with powders and fill them with coloured powders. Actually this is a very simple kolams. There are difficult ones too. The entire streets will be covered with Kolams. Since everyone are drawing kolams, they keep each other company. In winters, people draw kolams late night so that they don't need to do it in the fog next morning.

Cleaning your house entrance and exit every early morning just before the sunrise & evening with sprinkling of water / water mixed with cow dung and then sweeping and then drawing kolams is an everyday routinue here. The mud floor gets hardened and is disinfected due to the cow dung. Now as we have are having concrete or cement or tar roads, water is used. Without doing these people won't start any other task. In cities and metropolitan cities some don't do these.

This how you draw Kolams. Its a calculation and if one goes wrong, everything else do too. First you have to put the dots in correct numbers and orders and lines. Then connect them using lines. You can decorate them with flowers too, if you wish. Pulli kolams, maa kolams are some types of kolams.

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Wow they are very, very, intricate and beautiful!

 

Happy Pongal 12ss12
I loved all the photos

Can I ask why is the 2048 year for you? What happened 2048 years ago?

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