KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, January 15, 2019 (Free Malaysia Today): Hindu monk Simheswara Dasa, like many of his co-religionists, looks forward every year to the four-day Thai Pongal, the Tamil celebration of the rice harvest as a mark of gratitude to Surya, the Sun God. Hindu scriptures say that on Pongal, the day when the sun enters Capricorn, the charioted Surya begins his journey north to bring heat to the northern hemisphere after heating the south for six months. The main ritual of Pongal is the boiling of the first rice of the season in milk. Added to the rice are cane sugar, raisins, lentils and cashews and other nuts. Pongal is also the name of the dish. The word means “boiling over” or “overflow” and it signifies the gradual heating of the earth. The dish is cooked in clay pots on the first day of the festival in the open air after sunrise. It is offered to Surya and devotees partake in the feasting.
On the day before Pongal, Hindus discard old belongings and celebrate new possessions. They light a bonfire to burn the discards as they anticipate what some in India refer to as the Tamil New Year. On Pongal day itself, houses are decorated with mango leaves and pongal is served with savories and sweets. There is a ritual in which the year’s harvest is symbolically offered back to God. On the third day, cattle are given items of worship as gratitude for their work in the fields. Their horns are painted and their bodies decorated with turmeric-infused water and a red dye. On the last day, families hold reunions and brothers pay tribute to their married sisters by giving gifts, clothes or money, signifying their love for one another.