Malaysian Hindus prepare to celebrate 'Pongal' tomorrow

Clay pots, sugar canes and milk were among the items being snapped up by Tamil Hindus to celebrate Ponggal, a harvest festival tomorrow.

A survey at Little India, in Brickfields and in Jalan Tengku Kelana, Klang, found many Tamils making final preparations by purchasing these items since morning today.

The colourful clay pots with designs were being sold for RM6 to RM16 according to the size and a bottle of milk was sold for RM6 to RM9 depending on the amount.

Ponggal will be celebrated tomorrow, offering thanksgiving prayers to God, the sun, the earth and cows which produce milk.

The longest festival in the Tamil calendar starts today with a ceremonial burning where people discard old and derelict household items and clean the house bringing transformation and the beginning of a new cycle.

A housewife, R.Suriyakanthi, busy buying the essential things for the celebration, said sugar cane and milk were compulsory items for the celebration.

"Every year, I come here (Brickfields) because I can buy all the necessary things for Ponggal at one place and at affordable prices, this makes my work easy," she said when met by Bernama here.

A sugar cane seller, G. Ganesan, said this year the demand for sugar-cane was very high and he had to wait until today to get the sugar canes from the supplier.

"We only got our sugarcane supplies this morning. Many (Indians) who came to buy sugarcane yesterday did not get it as we did not have the supply," he said.

Although the demand is high, the sugarcane price is still reasonable at RM5 for two sticks of sugarcane.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Hindu Sangam president Datuk R.S. Mohan Shan said the auspicious time to prepare the Ponggal Rice (Sweet Rice) is between 7.30am until 8.58am tomorrow.

"However, Hindus can also prepare the Ponggal rice between 7.30am to 10am and from 4.30pm to 5.30pm," he said.

Ponggal festival will also be celebrated in a grand manner at the compound of the Sri Subramaniam Swamy Temple in Batu Caves tomorrow at 5pm.

The temple chairman, Tan Sri R. Nadarajah, invites the public to participate in the celebration which will be marked by cultural events and traditional Indian dishes will also be served.

The Ponggal festival is spread over three days and is also known as 'Mattu Ponggal' celebrated in honour of the bovine animals on the second day and 'Kanni Ponggal', dedicated to damsels, when unmarried young women offer prayed to get good husbands.

Ponggal is one of the most important and popular Hindu festivals celebrated with devotion and jubilation by Tamils all over the world after Deepavali.