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Thaiponggal / Makar Sankaranti
Thaiponggal celebration in a temple at noon.
Thaiponggal is a three to five day thanks giving festival celebrated in the second week of January, usually January 14th or 15th. The period marks the northward progression of the sun (uttarayana) after the winter solstice. It is a day of thanks giving to Mother Earth and the Sun, on which crops that provide food and commerce depend. This harvest festival is celebrated throughout India. In the northern Indian states it is Makar Sankaranti, in Andhra Pradesh, Pedda Panduga. In the states where the holy Ganga river flows it is called Gangasagar Mela. It is considered very auspicious to dip in the purifying waters of the Ganga during this festival. In Tamilnadu it is Thaiponggal.
On the first and second days of Thaiponggal families will awake before dawn, bathe and don new clothes. Elaborate kolams or rangoli will be drawn at the entrance of each home and a pot of sweet rice is cooked outside their houses or by their paddy plots. The cooking of the rice is timed with the rising of the sun. When the rice is cooked the father or eldest son of each family will offer the rice to the Sun as part of their worship amid much celebration and cheering with the words ‘pongaloo pongal!’
Traditionally earthen cooking pots are used to make ponggal (sweet rice).
Rice dishes are of central importance during this festival, since rice being the staple food in India represents the bounty of nature. Usually different dishes of rice, such as sweet rice, lime rice, tamarind rice and so forth is made and served on this day. Other important produce used during Makar Sankaranti / Thaiponggal ceremonies include sugarcane, molasses, sesame seeds and seasonal fruits of the region.
It is an auspicious moment signifying abundance when the sweet rice mixed with milk boils over.
Hindu temples hold special prayers on the first day of Makar Sankaranti or Thaiponggal. Priests and devotees gather and cook sweet rice together in large earthen pots in the temple grounds to offer the Sun and God before the celebratory afternoon community feast. This festival is considered a secular festival that is also adopted by non-Hindu communities in India.
On the second or third day (mattuponggal in Tamilnadu) Mother Earth is honoured by way of showing gratitude to cows. Family who own cows will bathe and decorate them, often painting their horns and garlanding them. The cows are fed their relished food, which is fodder mixed with cooked rice. Special competitions on cow handling proficiency and races (Jallikattu - Indian style rodeo) is also held on these days.
Cows are honoured by garlands and decorations on mattuponggal day.
Here the cow is being fed with blessed sweet rice.
For urban families living away from farms, Thaiponggal is celebrated on the first day. The home shrine is decorated with different types of fruits and vegetables. Usually surgacane is tied at the entrance of the house or the shrine room and kolams are drawn at the homes entrance. The family rises before dawn. The rice is cooked and a vegetarian breakfast prepared. Then a prayer is held at sunrise at the shrine room by the father. Before the family enjoys the breakfast together a portion of the food is place on a banana leaf outside the house as an offering to the Sun. This portion is also left out to be eaten by the birds and insects as a gesture of gratitude to Mother Earth.
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