I am a secularist rather than a ritualist, but I can’t help but be drawn into the celebrations that people make when they honour the passing of the seasons. Even as a child I felt the disconnect between Christmas and the hot dusty days of summer. When Christians invaded and colonised Australia they brought their holidays but did not consider changing the dates to match the seasons.
I was in India recently, invited as a speaker at the Hindu Lit For Life Festival in Chennai where I had lived ten years ago. The last day of the festival was the first day of Pongal. A friend, feminist economist Devaki Jain, who had grown up in Chennai eighty years earlier invited me to join her in a car ride to see Pongal celebrations in the streets.
This is a Tamil festival dating back at least a thousand years, a sun festival, welcoming the next six months of the sun’s journey, also a harvest festival. During this time many women produce beautiful drawings, known as kolam.
In my book Cow I wrote a poem about kolam which I think says more than I can explain here.
what she says about kolam
where they are drawn and when
is all important
early morning is auspicious
it sets the shape of the day
the hard ground is
cleaned
points of white grain sprinkled
she works quickly
she knows her design for the day
runs the powdered grain
from point to point
it is a mandala
a yantra
a sign
so the forces of the universe
align themselves
with her intentions
Back to Pongal. The festival goes for four days. On the first day, which is called Bhogi, people are on the streets with the fruits of harvest, piles of tumeric and stacks of sugar cane tied in bunches.
My friend, Devaki, bought flowers to take back to her room in the hotel.
The second day, called Thai Pongal, I was invited to a harvest lunch at the house of my friend Mangai who is a playwright, theatre director and human rights activist. The word ‘pongal’ means ‘boiling over’ or’ overflow’ and I saw this in the cooking of the sweetened rice dish into which each of the twelve people present poured some water and milk as it almost overflowed the pot.
This sweet rice dish was added to the collection of other dishes on the table. I cannot tell you what they were, but the meal was delicious.
After lunch everyone relaxed, someone sang, we talked and caught up on news.
The third day, is called Maatu Pongal, and cattle are at the centre of celebrations on that day.
I don’t know if this line up of cattle had anything to do with the day’s celebration but there they were tied up alongside a very busy main road. These were not cows and I did not see any cows with decorated horns and flowers on their heads. on that day as I have on other occasions.
On the fourth day, Kaanum Pongal, things begin to wind down. One of my co-speakers at the festival said she would be visiting family members on that day. The kolams are drawn again, sugar cane is consumed and people go back to their daily lives.
What I liked about being in Tamil Nadu during the Pongal festival is that it felt absolutely right. The time of the year, the connection with harvest, so I did not feel the discomfort I so often feel in the midst of the out-of-season commercialised holidays as they are celebrated in Australia.
Susan Hawthorne’s book Cow is available worldwide from distributors in USA, Canada, UK, from all the usual online retailers or from Spinifex Press. http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/Bookstore/book/id=215/
© Susan Hawthorne, 2019
(Meet Mago Contributor) Susan Hawthorne.
Re: Susan Hawthorne… I think you are a ritualist Susan, because otherwise you couldn’t have written a magnificent poem that speaks to exactly what happens when one aligns oneself with the forces of the universe – and the only way to do that is through ritual – I have just spent an amazing couple of days around the celebration of what I call “Bear’s Day” and First Light ( including finding the tracks of a bear) – others, more christianized call this feast Candlemas – All Indigenous cultures with ancient tradtions celebrate this “turning” in one form or another and entering into relationship with these turnings puts us in alignment with all there is…
You object to the same stuff I do… recent. commercialized crap… meaningless to anyone who needs to feel the “rightness” of these turnings.