Rani anna govt college for women
Republic day-2017
Friday, 27 January 2017
Friday, 13 January 2017
Pongal 2017
Pongal 2017: Tamil Harvest Festival, Customs, Traditions,Significance, and Dates
In Tamil Nadu pongal is an occasion to celebrate ones harvest of
rice and other cereals, sugar-cane, and turmeric in the past year and pray for
good harvest in the coming years.
In the mid of
January-February pongal is celebrated as a four-day long auspicious
harvest festival. In Tamil Nadu its significance is huge. They celebrate their harvest of rice
and other cereals, sugar-cane, and turmeric in the past year and pray for good
harvest in the coming years.
This year pongal will be celebrated on January 14 onwards. Mid
January is significant in the Tamil calendar and in this festival people thank
the nature for its virtues. The month of pongal is called Thai in Tamil. According to popular
belief people also have faith that pongal will solve their family issues and hence
people choose to get married during this month in Tamil Nadu.
The first day of pongal is the Bhogi festival which falls on January
13 this year. A bonfire is lit in the name of Lord Krishna. Old and
useless household articles are thrown into the fire which is made of wood and
cow dung cakes. People dance and sing around the bonfire praising the Lord
Indra for good harvest.
Second day is devoted
to the Sun god and is called Surya Pongal. Rice is
boiled in milk in an earthenware and offered to the diety’s idol. Women wake up
early to make the kolam, like the rangoli it is designed in every household’s
veranda with white lime powder. People wake up early morning for Surya Pongal in villages, they tie a turmeric plant with
the bowl of rice that they have boiled. The rice is prepared with dal and sugar
and prepared as a dish called Pongal. In many
households, husband and wife dispose the ritual utensils together as a
customary practice. This is the day when the festival actually begins.
Third day is
recognised as Mattu Pongal, the pongal for cows. People tie colourful garlands, beads
and bells around the neck of the cow and perform puja. Racing with each others
cattle is a common tradition and is one of the most awaited ceremonies in the
festival of pongal. Aarti is
performed in the temples. Thesignificance of the day goes back to a legend in Hindu
mythology when Shiva asked his bull Basava to go to earth and
declare that mortals should from then on take an oil massage every day and eat
once a month. But Basava told the mortals that they should eat daily and take a
massage once a month. This angered Shiva and he sent Basava to earth where he was to
plough fields for the rest of life and live as a mortal. Hence this day is
dedicated to cattle.
The fourth day is
called Kannum Pongal. As a custom,
women wake up early morning and pray for their husbands. In a turmeric leaf,
rice is put in the centre and aarti is performed.
Happy New Year 2017
Happy New Year 2017
New Year's Day, also called simply New Year's or New
Year, is observed on January
1, the first day of the year on the modernGregorian calendar as well as the Julian
calendar. In pre-Christian Rome
under the Julian
calendar, the day was dedicated to Janus, god of gateways and beginnings, for whom January is also named. As a date in the Gregorian
calendar of Christendom, New Year's Day liturgically marked the Feast of the Naming and
Circumcision of Jesus, which is
still observed as such in the Anglican Church andLutheran
Church.[2][3] In present day, with most countries now using
the Gregorian calendar as their de
facto calendar, New
Year's Day is probably the most celebrated public holiday, often observed with fireworks at the stroke of midnight as the new year starts in each time zone. Other
global New Years' Day traditions include making New Year's resolutions and calling one's friends and family.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)