This weekend was the celebration of Pongal, the harvest festival in Tamil Nadu. Pongal is a three day holiday with different celebrations on each day. It seems as if it is similar in nature to Thanksgiving back home with celebration time with family and traditional foods to eat. Pongal (the food) can be either sweet or savory. The savory form is traditionally eaten for breakfast around the year, but the sweet form is eaten on Pongal. It's made of rice, dal, & jaggery.
Saturday was the start of pongal. This day is literally the day to be thankful for the sun. We spent the day at the Madras Race Track, watching the derby. (This is not a normal way to celebrate Pongal; it was just a coincidence it happened on the same day.) Racing is not a big sport here in Chennai (apparently one person owns most of the winning horses here), but my friend's husband is a horse trainer/owner, so she invited us as her guests. We had a lot of fun, placing Rs. 5 (~10 cents) bets on the horses, even though my friend wouldn't give us any insider information!
Sunday was mattu pongal, a day of thanksgiving for the cows. I hear that, in the villages, the farmers give their cows a day of rest and decorate them with paint for the festival. I was disappointed not to see any of the city cows painted for the holiday!
Monday was kaanum pongal, a day typically reserved for visiting friends and relatives. Of course, we still had to work, so we were unable to join the throngs of people that flock to Marina Beach to picnic on the holiday.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Try for the Jackpot next time ...
ReplyDeleteit seems to me that you just have to figure out who the owners are and bet on the one that owns all the winning horses.
ReplyDelete