Happy Pongal

For the last few days (and possibly tomorrow) the festival of Pongal has been celebrated in South India. Pongal is the official start of spring and the beginning of the next harvest season. It's a bit like Thanksgiving... people travel home to see relatives and Tamils celebrate well, the harvest.

For days now I've been passing people selling 6 feet high stalks of sugar cane that people will carry home on their heads or balanced precariously on their motorcycles. The sugar cane is then attached to either side of the main doorway of your house, or the occasional store entrance.

All the women are wearing their nicest saris (the men look the same as they always do!). Women also have garlands of flowers tucked into their braids and all the little girls are wearing their frilliest dresses.

Grocery stores are also selling this weird root plant with its stalk still attached that people put on the hood of their cars along with the obligatory garland of marigolds. Another traditional part of Pongal is having an intricate design painted on your front stoop with rice flour paint. These are called kovalam and unfortunately I've only seen two small ones today.

Today is the part of Pongal when the cows are celebrated. They all get to stay in the pasture (on a hill, beside the road etcetera) and relax. Apparently they get fed a special mixture of pongal and sugar as a reward for their work or something. Lucky cows!

I also wanted to include the picture of this sign I saw today. Not only is the wording of the sign funny, NOTHING in India is clean. Cows crap into the streams, people use detergent and wash their clothes right in the stream. Can anyone say phosphates? I'm not even gonna go into the peeing at the side of the road...