Pongal is a rice festival
`Pongal’, this is one of the high points of a festival celebrating the rice harvest in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu lies in the far south of India. While its eastern part is a broad, flat plain, the western part is hilly. The most important hills are Nilgiri hills. The Cauvery and Ponnaiyar rivers began in the hills on the west and flow into Bay of Bengal.
Tamil Nadu has a very warm climate. The summers are hot and the winters are moderate. The state gets rain both in winter and summer.
Rice is the most important crop. Maize, Jowar, bajra and dals are also planted. Sugar –cane, cotton and tobacco grow well on the lowlands. Near the foot of the Nilgiri Hills rubber trees are grown. Higher up on the hills are tea and coffee gardens.
The coastline of Tamil Nadu is over 1500 km long. Along the coast there are many small fishing villages. The most important fish are Pomfret, mackerel and prawns.
Tamil Nadu has the third largest number o mills and factories among the Indian states. They make cotton and silk cloth, paper, cigarettes, cement, rubbers tyre, scooters, cars and army tanks. There is an iron and steel plant at Salem.
Coastal plain: area near the coast.
Lowlands: plains.
Coastline: outline of coast; coast is an area of land next to sea.
Satellite: an object sent into space to be part of communication system.
Tinned: persevered and sealed in a tin.
Harbor: the place where ships stop.
Breakwater: barrier built out into the sea to break the force of weaves.
Many of the warm, moist fields of south India grow two crops o paddy or rice during the year. One harvest time comes in January, and it brings a festival, as harvests of all sorts in Indian usually do.
Since most of the states of Indian have their own languages, the rice harvest has many different names. In all the states of the south, through, people make a special sweet of new rice, sugar, fruits and utter oil to celebrate the harvest. This sweet called Pongal in Tamil Nadu state and the rice festival also called pongal.
It is three days celebrate festival.
On the first day of the festival, people thank the gods or sending rains to make the harvest good. They visit the nearby temple with their gifts for the gods. The gifts may be mall or as large as painted clay horses several feet tall. Lines of these horses can be seen outside many shrines.
On the second day, thanks are given to the sun. The mother of the family rises early and bathes. As soon as she has bathed, she starts the cooking some of the new rice for the holiday sweets. She may do this coking on a specially decorated hearth out in the courtyard for open-air living.
Meanwhile, men who are skilled at climbing the tall slender coconut trees bring down young coconuts. With one skilful swipe of a sharp-bladed field knife, a man slashes through the thick, fibrous shell. He makes a small hole into the milk –filled centre of the nut. This sweet drink is a favorite treat for the harvest festival –or for any day.
The third day of the holiday is planned to honor the cattle that have also helped in the growing of the crops and in the harvest. Men ad boys take the family bullock or water buffalo to some water hole and splash water over its broad back to wash it clean. Then only they paint the animal’s horns, perhaps bright blue or gold. They may add topknots decked with shimmering blue –green peacock feathers, and girls may hang garlands of flowers around the necks of the hardworking beasts.
It is hard to tell whether or not the animals know they are being honored. But people of India feel that the cattle deserve their share in celebrations. In various parts of India, the day for honoring the cattle may be part of different festivals, but everywhere the cattle have their day. Often there is a parade with music in their honor, and the faithful beasts are given tastes of the special sweets their masters enjoy so much.
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