Pongal 2021

Pongal is a festival dedicated to the sun god. It is celebrated in Tamil Nadu. There are 4 days of Pongal. The first day is Bhogi. On Bhogi, we clean the house. The day after Bhogi is Thai Pongal. On Thai Pongal, we make Pongal and pray to the sun god. The next day is Mattu Pongal. On Mattu Pongal, we paint the cows horns, adorn them with bells and give food for the cows. The next day is Kannum Pongal. On Kannum Pongal families meet and have fun.

My Pongal

On Bhogi, we cleaned the house from top to bottom. We tied mango leaves and turmeric plant on the doors. We also put kolam. We got the thin firewood from the factory and got them dried to use as firewood.

On the next day, we wore new dress and got ready for making Pongal.

We kept the aduppu and kept the Pongal pot with water and milk on it. We kept the sticks in the aduppu. Then we lit the lamp and did the arathi and then we lit the firewood. Next we had to wait for the water to boil.

When it over flows we say Pongalo Pongal. After that we add rice and dhal. Then let the rice cook until soft. We stirred it continuously to avoid them sticking at the bottom of the pot. Next we added jaggery and stirred it well. After the jaggery melted, we added a bowl of ghee. Next we added cardamom powder, roasted cashew and raisin and stirred well.

We brought the Pongal pot inside the house and put flowers around it and tied a turmeric plant also around it. My mother made the pillayar out of turmeric powder. Shaped it as a cone and put red Kumkum. Next she kept it near the pot. Then we prayed. After praying we ate some sweet Pongal and sugarcane.

This was our first Pongal we kept by ourselves and it was a good experience.