Malaysian Festivals

The first, "Bhogi Pongol" is a day for the family. Homes are washed, decorated, doorways painted with vermillion and sandalwood paste with colourful garlands of leaves and flowers decorating the home exteriors. This day, "Bhogi", the Rain God, is worshiped.

The place where the Pongal Puja is to be conducted, generally an open court yard, is cleaned and smeared with cow dung, a day before the festival.



The second, "Surya Pongal" is dedicated to the worship of Sun God.



In the third, "Mattu Pongol", the descendants of Nandi, cattle which help to produce the life-sustaining rice is honoured by them being bathed and gaily caparisoned with beads, bells, flowers and coloured powder. The horns are capped with gleaming metals.

People from the entire village get together for a community feast to share their crops and thank those who lent a hand to bring in a successful harvest.

The fourth day which is observed in some parts is generally a day of rest.



"Kolams" (Rangoli) marks the dawn of Thai Pongal in front yards of houses, drawn with rice flour paste. The idea is that ants and insects would feed on it and bless the house. At its centre is a lump of cow dung, holding a five-petal pumpkin flower, a symbol of fertility and an offering of love to the presiding deity.

Thai Pongal. Thai, the first month of the Tamil Almanac, beginning on January 13/14. Pongol, a dish of sweet concoction of rice, Moong Dal, jaggery and milk.



Thai Pongal, the merriest and may be, the most popular Hindu festival of India and Sri Lanka, a harvest festival and a feast of thanksgiving to the Sun God, the God known to all the living, and the giver of plentiful harvest. In India where the majority are farmers, this rural festival is the celebration of the withdrawal of Southeast Monsoons and reaping of a joyful harvest.



Pongal has many legends. The most popular is that Lord Krishna lifted the Govardhan Mountain on his little finger to save his people from being washed away by the rains and floods. Another says that Lord Shiva asked his bull, Nandi, to go to earth and tell the people to have an oil bath daily and have food once a month. But, Nandi got it all mixed up and told the people to eat daily and bathe monthly.

Shiva was annoyed and said,"Now that people need to eat more, you stay on earth and help them plough the fields more!" Thai Pongal is family-oriented and the day begins with the boiling of a clay pot of Pongol rice at sunrise in the front of the house as the family delightfully cries out, "Pongal! Pongal! auchu!" which means, "It's boiling! It's boiling!"

Originally celebrated almost exclusively by the Tamil farming community, Thai Pongal has now become an important festival even among non-farming Hindu communities in towns and urban areas, who would like to let some 'sunshine' into their lives. They like to make a fresh start in the New Year. Thai Pongal is the first festival in the calendar year and gives them the opportunity to do so in a traditional manner.



Houses are cleaned and decorated. People buy new clothes. They get married - it is considered a good time astrologically to do so. There is generally an air of joy and festivity.

The festival is accordingly celebrated over two days. The first day is devoted to the boiling of milk in a pot to which rice, jaggery and the syrup extracted from crushed sugar cane is added. This sweet rice pudding is offered first to the Sun God, and is then eaten at the climax of a family festive meal.

The second day is dedicated to the oxen that assist the farmers in the rice fields. It is called Mattu (cattle) Pongal. The animals are washed and decorated with straw garlands hung around their necks and horns.



In some instances, quite often in Tamil Nadu, the foreheads and horns of the animals are brightly painted. And the cattle are provided with special foods and given special poojas (offerings) for their faithful assistance.

This is a harvest festival - the Tamil equivalent of Thanksgiving. 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.



Thai Pongal is celebrated on January 14th every year. The month of Thai (January) is the harvest season in the Thamil homeland spanning from Thamil Nadu to Thamil Eelam. Pongal refers to rice cooked in milk and sweetened with brown sugar (chakkarai, from which the English word jaggery is derived). On a full scale it is a three-day festival of nature-worship.



It includes feeding the birds that are part of the beauty of nature, and offering thanks to the cattle, Mattu Pongal, which gives milk and plough the fields. Jallikkattu is a peaceful sport involving bulls celebrated by young men as a part of 3-day Thai Pongal.



Thai Pongal festival is celebrated in mid-January, or the Tamil month of Thai, to coincide with the rice harvest.
Pongal refers to boiling rice in a pot for consumption. The sun gives life to the rice. The instruments of this transmutation are the pot and the oxen that assist the farmers in preparing the rice fields and threshing the grains.