The first day is called Bhogi. It's a day to give thanks to the Lord Indra, the God of thunder and rain, for a good harvest. On Bhogi people thoroughly clean their homes and get rid of everything they don't need. Brian hated this part haha! Eira-lynn and I went through the house cleaning and purging. Boy it felt good to get rid of so much crap. And a TON of clothes that didn't fit the kids or Brian or me anymore. It's much less cluttered in here. This is probably my favorite part of the holiday. I thought it was a little much to teach Eira about people worshiping the God of thunder, so we just talked about being thankful of the rain so crops could grow and people all over the world could eat.
The second day is Surya Pongal and is the day Pongal actually begins. People celebrate the sun God, Surya, cook pongal (a sweet dish made when rice and milk cooked in clay pots until it boils over) and draw kolam (colorful designs usually made with colored rice flour, they are really pretty. Google it) in front of their home.
The first offering of the pongal is to the sun God. Again, I thought it was too much to talk to Eira about the sun God, but we did talk about all the good things the sun is used for. I've never cooked or eaten Indian food in my life, but I figured Pongal would be a good day to start. I made chick pea curry which was actually pretty good for my first try. For desert I cheated and got a packaged yellow lentil and milk pudding called Moong Dal Halwa. It was quite gross. It had the texture of chewed-up-and-spit-out peanuts. "Oh, you mean peanut butter?" you ask. No. Like chewed-up-and-spit-out peanuts. Big difference. It was the closest thing to Pongal I could find. I could have made it pretty easily but do you have any idea how expensive Indian spices are? $10 for a jar of cardamom! Maybe next time i'll be a little more adventurous.
Eira-lynn was so excited to do the kolam, so we started our day with that. It was freezing and come to find out I'm a crappy chalk artist, but I think we got the job done (those thing on the points of the star are jars of pongal boiling over). While we were out there we fed some birds. I didn't have coked rice, so I used rice krispies instead.
The third day is Mattu Pongal and is a day to celebrate the cattle. The family's cattle are washed and beads, flower garlands and bells are tied around their necks and their horns are painted. On Mattu Pongal Lord Ganesh and Goddess Parvati are worshiped. According to a legend, once Shiva asked his bull, Basava, to go to the earth and ask the mortals to have an oil massage and bath every day and to eat once a month. Inadvertently, Basava announced that everyone should eat daily and have an oil bath once a month. This mistake enraged Shiva who then cursed Basava, banishing him to live on the earth forever. He would have to plough the fields and help people produce more food. Thus this day is associated with cattle. As you could imagine, I couldn't get my hands on any cows to paint, so Eira-lynn and I drew some cows and threw some glitter and stickers on them. They were awful pretty cows.
The last day is Kanum Pongal and is a day people travel to see other family members and the younger members of the family pay homage to the elders, and the elders thank them by giving token money. Many leave food out on banana leaves for birds to take. Some also go to temple to worship and thank God for all good things that are bestowed on them.
Traveling to see family was kind of out of the question today, but Eira-lynn talked to Brian's mom on the phone. And we threw some rice kripies to the birds. I'm sure it counts.
We should have more fun holidays like that in the US. I never knew I was missing out on so many fun activities, neat ideas and excuses to eat chewed-up-and-spit-out peanut pudding.
Next up: Lady of Altagracia day (Jan 21)
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