By: Veluppillai Thangavelu
Thanksgiving is an important aspect of Thamil culture and tradition like many other civilisations. Most thanksgiving ceremonies are religious in nature as people of each culture thank their chosen deity for the favours granted to them, though this is not always the case.
The Thamil festival of Thai Pongal is a thanks-giving ceremony and secular in nature. It is the equivalent of Canada's Thanks Giving Day. Pongal is a traditional four-days-long harvest festival celebrated by Thamils living around the globe. Pongal day and the date following are national holidays in Thamil Nadu, India.
If we reconstruct people made the transition from a nomadic way of life, based on hunting and then planting and gathering food, there has been some form of harvest festival. Pongal is one of the most important popular festivals of the year. This four-days festival of thanksgiving takes its name from the Thamil word meaning "to boil" and is held on the first day of the month of Thai (January -February) when rice and other cereals, sugar-cane, and turmeric (an essential ingredient in Tamil cooking) are harvested. Full Story>>>
