Pongal – Essay 1.
Pongal festival is one of the biggest festivals celebrated in Tamil Nadu which is at the southern part of the country.
It is one of the most famous Hindu festivals in the country. It is a four-day long festival which is celebrated by farmers in harvesting season. Like Baisakhi in the northern part of the country is celebrated on 13th of April every year, Pongal gets celebrated on Jan 14th or 15th every year.
On the first day of the festival, all the farmers and their family pay their homage to Lord Indra due to who is the ruler of Clouds and also the reason for They pray to God that he should bless him as always so that farmers can get a huge amount of harvest every year. After that, there is a ceremony where people throw their unused wood items in a fire, and then people dance around that bonfire to celebrate this amazing festival.
On the second day, various rituals get performed by lots of people, but the best among all is that people do puja for blessing them with lots of harvests this year and then rice is boiled in milk in an earthenware pot. All the people are dressed traditionally to celebrate this amazing day and in a ritual husband and wife dispose of the utensil used for Puja.
On the third day of the festival, Cows get worshipped with various rituals. Bells get tied to the neck of a cow, and people do prayers among them for their betterment, and then all the cows are taken to the centers of the villages where people get attracted to the sweet voice of the bells tied with the neck of a cow. People worship cows there, and a festival like atmosphere gets created itself.
On the fourth day, the leftovers of the first and second days get placed along with turmeric leaf and lots of other things and people perform various kinds of traditional rituals outside their houses. Females of the houses usually perform these rituals, and that is why females perform these rituals before bathing in the morning, and then they do Aarti for the prosperity of her family.
People of all age groups enjoy this festival to their fullest.
By Aparna (2019)
Pongal – Essay 2
We all are blessed who have taken birth on this motherland called India. In India, we have numerous festivals filled with love and happiness. Pongal is one the happiest festival.
Pongal a way to express gratitude: India is an agricultural country and half of the population is engaged in agriculture. Pongal is the way of thanking God for overwhelming harvesting of crops. This is a festival to mark the beginning of the six month’s journey in a northward direction.
Four days long festival: This is mainly the festival of Tamil Nadu in South India and it’s a four-day celebration. This is the most important festival because of the reason for this festival as this is for offering gratitude to God. Pongal means to boil. Cereals like rice, sugar cane, turmeric or other then these cereals are harvested.
Celebration of Prosperity: India is a land of agriculture. Thus, changes of the season play a very important role for farmers. Their lives are simply linked to seasonal landmarks.
By Ananda (2019)