Festivals that shrink into a day

Festivals that shrink into a day

The four-day Pongal ends in one day. The joy of Pongal which is celebrated for four days namely Bogi, Perum Pongal, Mattu Pongal and Kanum Pongal continues only for Perum Pongal.

All the young sets are working towns and cities. There are many people who have become residents of Chennai, Hosur and Tirupur. They come for Diwali, Pongal and temple festivals to remember their place of birth.

They come to the village either in the evening or at night. The next day, after Pongal is over, they enjoy drinking alcohol with their friends. On the day of Mattu pongal of Kanum pongal, they leave from village.

Was village pongal like this before? Pongal works start ten to twenty or thirty days before Pongal. Pongal work is done by sweeping the house, whitewashing it and cleaning all the things in the house.

Most of the houses were thatched houses then. They are mud-walled houses. Sand and silt should be brought from the river bank and the wall should be finished. You have to buy the clinching lime and use the stick to beat it and whitewash all the walls. There are those who mix light green or light blue with white. The house will look like a new house on every pongal.

Pongal stones for preparing stove set up that are passed down from generation to generation are safe to use for Pongal. It will take half a day's work to prepare it and arrange the outdoor pongal area. There are people who have Pongal at sunrise and end the Pongal with breakfast. There are people who look at the almanac at 10 or 11 AM and arrange Pongal for lunch at a good time.

In the Pongal happiness can be heard in all four directions and the plates and pans are ready to make noise when the Pongal is celebrating. The sound of children saying Pongal Pongal and the sound of chorus that they keep at home is like a bazaar.

The next day is the peak of the Matuppongal celebrations. On the day of Perum Pongal, they used to put bunches of paddy and gooseberry sticks in front of the cowshed to make preparations for Mattu Pongal. Mattu pongal is celebrated after noon. Cows are bathed and garlanded, and the noise and drumming of tambalas will make the whole village in a happy surrounding. Words cannot describe the overwhelming excitement of catching a cow in the temple at night. That incident is still missing in most villages. Cows have also disappeared from the houses. Even the mounds of straw in the backyards have disappeared.

For the Kanum Pongal people prepate variety rice and go to the temple and the pond to celebrate. There are those who celebrate by going to the houses of friends and relatives. Times have changed now. All pongals end with perum pongal. The young sets who came for Perum Pongal leave their villages like refugees who seek refuge in cities during Pongal. On Kanum Pongal, sports competitions are held for the children who are left behind in the village, and rangoli competitions are held for the women. They put on loudspeakers and play cine songs and tear up the ears.

Even after the four days of Pongal, there is an attraction in the village. Harvesting begins. The village begins to wait for the next temple festival. Only then those who left the village and sought refuge in the outlying places will return to the village.

*****