Cultural festival marks Pongal in the City

Traditional flavour

The diversity that defines our country, gives people a reason to celebrate the same festival by different names but in their specific traditional ways. What Lohri is to Punjab and some parts of northern India and celebrates good harvest of the season, people of Tamil Nadu and in some other southern states observe Pongal.

The only difference lies in the manner of celebration. As several hotels in the city organised get togethers and bonfire nights for people on the occasion of Lohri, the Tamil cultural society, Delhi Muththamizh Peravai, conducted a two-day long cultural programme for the Tamilians in the City to mark Pongal.

“Pongal is a thanksgiving festival,” says KVK Perumal, president, Delhi Muththamizh Pervai Cultural Society. “In Tamil Nadu farmers celebrate this festival by thanking nature, sun and their cattle for the good harvest. However, to celebrate the day in Delhi we have organised some cultural activities to mark the day.

The highlights include a music concert by Ranjani and Gayathri, famous Carnatic music vocalists and Saswati Prabhu and a Bharatanatyam recital by the disciples of Saroja Vaidyanthan. Besides, young students from the community will also give a music performance.”

Explaining about how the festival is celebrated by the Tamil communities living in localities like R K Puram, Munirka, Indirapuram and Mayur Vihar, Perumal says, “Pongal is a four-day celebration. The first day is called as Bhogi Pongal when people clean their houses, discard old household items. As a part of tradition, people generally buy some items like utensils. It represents the start of a new and fresh cycle of life.”

“The second day is celebrated as Surya Pongal or Thai Pongal. People decorate their houses with rangoli, rice flour and red clay. On this day we worship the Sun God and offers prayers to him. In Delhi, we decorate temples and ladies make rangolis,”
says he.

As the festival celebrates prosperity with the first harvest of the season,
Tamilians finds no better way to demonstrate this spirit than cooking specific Pongal delicacies. “A special dish called ‘ Sweet Pongal’ is cooked on this day,” says
Padmini, a resident of Karol Bagh.

“Pongal is made from rice, milk and jaggery. Generally, people cook this dish outside their home in Tamil Nadu but this is not possible in Delhi. However, people do gather in temples like Balaji and Vaikunthnathan to cook Pongal together. We also make dry dishes from banana and other vegetables, wadai, poli (similar to pooran-poli), sambhar and rasam.”

The festival continues for the two more days. ‘Mattu Pongal’ is celebrated on the third  day on a large scale. It includes worshipping of cattle because it is believed that it is because of their assistance there has been a good harvest. The last day is celebrated as Kanum Pongal when people go on picnics, spend time with family and friends and doorways are marked with kumkum, turmeric and sandalwood paste in order to welcome prosperity into the homes.