Pongal: A celebration of bountiful harvest

Celebrated in the month of Thai, the 10th month of the Tamil Hindu calendar it is to pay homage to the solar deity,'Surya Baghavan' for blessing their harvest.

For those who celebrate the festival, their homes will be decorated with banana and mango leaves and floor embellished with decorative patterns drawn using rice flour.

For KL housemates, Malini, 30, and Shalu, 29, they are looking forward for this year’s celebration as this will be their first pongal away from home.

“We would like to try and celebrate pongal independently this year.

“Usually we celebrate it together with our respective families back home but now since we are in Kuala Lumpur, we’re going to attempt our very first own celebration," said the housemates.

They added that they would be making pongal in the kitchen of their apartment as opposed to the traditional way of making it in front of the house porch.

As for temple devotee, Vijaya Ayyapan, said this year’s pongal will be at the temple.

“My pongal celebration will be in the temple. I’ll be at the temple at 6am for the celebration,” said Vijaya.

The celebration at the temple will be celebrated in two phases which is in the morning and evening.

“Usually the celebration at the temple will begin with a ‘Maha Abishegam’, a grand prayer which would start from 4am. Upon completing the prayer, we will head to the entrance of the temple and start setting up for pongal.

“The entrance of the temple will be decorated with sugar canes and thoranam (hanging decorations usually made up of tender coconut leaf blades and mango leaves). Once the setting is prepared, all devotees will fill the pot made out of clay with milk little by little until it is three quarter full.

“Then we will wait for it to slowly boil and once the milk begins to boil, all of us will shout, pongolo pongal, pongolo pongal," explained Vijaya when asked how pongal will be celebrated at the temple.

Among the many highlights of the celebration is the chanting of the words “pongolo pongal” when the milk begins to boil and overflow out of the pot which signifies abundance and prosperity.

"After that, other ingredients (rice,paruppu,raisins,cashew nuts,cardamom) will be added into the pot of boiled milk.

"This will take about an hour. At about 7am once the pongal is ready, we will do ‘neiveithiyam’ (a ritual usually performed upon preparing a dish and before consuming the dish), and will serve in on a banana leaf in front of the goddess.

"This will then be followed by prayers which will go on till 9.30 am. The end of the morning prayers marks the end of phase 1 of the celebration," added Vijaya.

Once phase 1 of the celebration is done, preparations for phase 2 will take place for about an hour.

Once it is done, people will go back to their respective homes and will be back at about 5pm for the second phase of the celebration.