Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Pongal Vaazhthukkal!

Here's wishing you and your families a verrrrry happy Pongal 2008! Ungal anaivarakkum en iniya pongal nalvaazhthukkal!

This is a picture of my pooja offering for pongal today:

pooja offerings:
coconut (and coconut water), sweet pongal, venpongal, bananas, sugarcane, apples

Amma always has told me stories of Pongal, the harvest festival, from when she was in Tamilnadu. Since I come from a family of landowning farmers, pongal has always been the most important festival for us. Pongal literally means boiling over. I guess that's sort of a generic way of looking at the harvest time. It's a time of celebrating with family, and appreciating the cows (and family!) that have helped to till the fields.

Over time, the significance has sort of evolved a bit. But, I think it's great that we still take the time to give importance to such festivals even in today's busy lifestyle! So, I send everyone my heartiest wishes for Pongal and the year to come!


6 comments:

Pravs said...

Happy pongal,kalai!

Kalai said...

Thanks, Pravs! Same to you!

Pooja said...

Happy Pongal.
Your picture here reminded me of our traditions . thanks for sharing, this kind ofpics are keeping it alive withing us.
Take a peek into my blog, perhaps you would like to be a part of celebration of Republic day of India.
thanks.
-Pooja

Kalai said...

Thanks so much for the kind words, Pooja!

Anonymous said...

Hi Kalai,
Just got ur site from Pooja contest.En inniya Nalvaazhtukkal. The cane sugar reminds home.I can smell the Tamilian flavor.My blog is about Tamil Nadu too :http://spice-club.blogspot.com/

Kalai said...

Vanakkam, Cham!!! En blog-ku vandhadhukku mikka nanri! Ungal blog-ai sikirama vandhu paarpen. :)