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by S. S. M. Nanayakkara

Today, is Thai Pongol day. The Thai Pongol festival is celebrated by Hindus all over the world as the harbinger of good luck and prosperity.

This festival is consecrated to the Sun God as the supreme donor of life's sustenance, on his benevolence depends the success or failure of the harvest. Hindus eagerly await 'Thai' or the first month of the year and 'Pongol' its festival to usher in peace, plenty and prosperity throughout the year. The festival, in reality, is one of thanksgiving to the Sun God for his part in bestowing a successful harvest.

There isn't the slightest doubt that the call of the golden bells of Pongol for peace and prosperity will be answered favourably this year with ongoing peace talks between erstwhile bitter rivals in the cause of their respective contentions.

On the morning of the Thai Pongol festival, rice from the newly harvested paddy, macerated in fresh cow's milk and highly seasoned with traditional condiments to promote flavour and palatability is cooked in front of the house on improvised temporary hearths arranged for the purpose. The hearths are two in number, one oriented towards the rising sun and other facing the entrance to the house.

These are ceremoniously lit by one of the womenfolk of the house immaculately bedecked in new attire to suit the august occasion at a predetermined auspicious hour.

If the froth of the boiling milk containing the macerated rice exudes in the direction of the rising sun it omens a prosperous harvest, on the other hand if the froth exudes in the direction of the house the wellbeing and prosperity of the family is predicted. The milk rice thus prepared, is together with sweetmeats and fruits, plantains and sugar cane being a must, is ritually offered to the Sun God invoking his blessings. Special poojas or ritual invocations for divine blessings to grace the occasion are held either in front of the house or in the local temple. On the termination of the spiritual obligations, the inmates of the house help themselves to their portion of the feast.

Mattu Pongol

Hindu families in Sri Lanka distribute milk rice and other homemade sweetmeats and delicacies among neighbours and friends as a gesture of goodwill, vying with one another lavishly to them much in same way the Sinhala Buddhists do on new year's day.

On the day following Thai Pongol, the festival of cattle and goats, traditionally known as 'Mattu Pongol' is celebrated in high gusto. This exclusively is a festival of thanksgiving dedicated to the dumb and mute friends adored by farmers for their sound contribution in helping the latter in their agricultural pursuits. On Mattu Pongol day domestic cattle are bathed, anointed and fed to their heart's content.

They are adorned with garlands of freshly picked flowers around their necks. In the south of India the custom is to tie small bags of money, parcels of expensive cloth and other costly presents around the sharp, long and vicious and glistening horns of vigorous bullocks and steers and let them loose in village enclosures. Local dandies and exuberant young men vie with one another to wrest the coveted prizes from their hazardous perches to impress the admiring village beauties gathered at a safe distance away from the enclosures admiring the derring-do of the young men.

Such gimmicks are fraught with grave danger to the life and limb of the performers. Instances are not uncommon where the contestants have come to grief. The grand performance is the cynosure of all eyes in the gathering particularly of the young of both sexes and end in Cupid's arrows finding their target amongst the victors and their admiring beauties.

While most of the avant-garde in the metropolitan areas of the North and East of Sri Lanka have let the custom into desuetude, this is still followed in some of the plantation areas of the up country.

Kollattam

A fascinating folk dance performed by the young women and teenage girls on Thai Pongol and Mattu Pongol days in what is known as 'Kollattam' or 'Lee keliya' in which short, hardened and thin clubs of a sort are used. A bevy of girls wielding the sticks strike those held in one another's hands in graceful and titillating dances to the accompaniment of folk music.

Of the two major festivals days of the Hindus which fall on January and October respectively. Thai Pongol is dedicated to the Sun God and Deepavali or the festival of lights to signify the legendary rout and destruction of demon ravaging the country, allegorizing the supremacy of light over darkness.

The Thai Pongol day is a statutory holiday in Sri Lanka and most of the states that are predominantly Hindu.

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