Pongal is a harvest festival – the Tamil equivalent of Thanksgiving to the Sun God. In an agriculture based civilization, the harvest plays an important part. The farmer cultivating his land depends on cattle, timely rain, and the Sun. Once a year, he expresses his gratitude to these during the harvest festival. With the end of the wet month of Margazhi (mid-December to mid-January), the new Tamil month of Thai heralds a series of festivals. The first day of this month is a festival day known as “Pongal Day”. Pongal means the “boiling over” of milk and rice during the month of Thai.
The four-day celebration of Pongal Marks a period of plenty, peace, and happiness. There is a Tamil saying that “Thai peranthal Vazhi Perakum”. That paraphrased means with the dawn of the month of Thai, there will be peace, happiness, prosperity, brightness, and harmony in the life of everyone. It is held to honor the Sun, for a bountiful harvest. Families gather to rejoice and share their joy and their harvests with others. The Sun is offered a “Pongal” of rice and milk.
Last year our SmartMed Team along with our students in the Philippines celebrated Pongal with all its traditional grandeur.Those games of our countryside we always would like to get indulged during the festival like ‘Kabadi’and ’Tug of War’ too were conducted for the students inside the campus. Pongal and the typical Tamil Nadu ‘Saapadu’ was also served in ‘vaazhaiyilai’ on that occasion.
Students were so delighted and grateful for the Pongal Celebrations organized by us. Celebrating each and every festival with our students is a great pleasure for us. Making their study destination itself a home for them is our success.
