Thai Pongal 2024
Happy Thai Pongal from our home to all yours and beyond!
Today, we’re wishing everyone a joyous Thai Pongal and hope it is a wonderful holiday spent with family and loved ones.
#pongal2024
#Pongal is not a Hindu religious festival. Pongal aka Thai Pongal, is a multi-day harvest festival celebrated by Tamils. It is observed in the month of Thai according to the Tamil solar calendar and usually falls on 14 or 15 January. It is dedicated to the Suryan, the planet Sun. The #harvest festival under many regional names celebrated throughout India. The festival is celebrated over three or four days with Bhogi, Surya Pongal, Maatu Pongal and Kaanum Pongal, observed on consecutive days.
According to tradition, the festival marks the end of winter solstice, and the start of the sun's six-month-long journey northwards called Uttarayana when the sun enters Capricorn. The festival is named after the ceremonial "Pongal", which means "to boil, overflow" and refers to the traditional dish prepared from the new harvest of rice boiled in milk with raw sugar.
Maatu Pongal is meant for celebration of cattle when the cattle are bathed, their horns polished and painted in bright colors, garlands of flowers placed around their necks and processions. It is traditionally an occasion for decorating rice-powder based kolam artworks, offering prayers in the home. getting together with family and friends, and exchanging gifts to renew social bonds of solidarity.
Pongal is one of the most important festivals celebrated by #Tamil people in Tamil Nadu and other parts of South India. It is also a major Tamil festival in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, United States, Indonesia, Mauritius, UK, South Africa, Canada, Australia, Gulf countries and observed by the Tamil diaspora worldwide.