Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Ponggalo oh Ponggal

For many, the real peak for the Ponggal ceremony was when the sweetened rice boils over.

But for me, it was when Siva starts singing.

Wow! Hehe…


Ponggal (means “boiling over” in Tamil) or harvest festival will mark the end of an old and beginning of a new year. Normally the festival is celebrated for four days, namely Bhogi, veetu ponggal, mattu ponggal and finally kanni ponggal.

Most of the local community will celebrate the main and second day, whereby the family pays tributes to mother Earth for the bounty. While many argues that the festival are equivalent of Thanksgiving, I think it looks more like a Gawai, where our Dayak natives celebrate their very own harvest festival.


I was told that in India, Ponggal ceremony actually held in the paddy fields, instead of in the house compound. But then the farmers usually live nearby the fields, anywhere.

When rice, means life.


Soon after the “boiling over” session, praying will start firstly by the man of the family, followed by mother and finally down the last youngest member of the family. Very much like the Chinese’s praying sequence, where respect and honor will be given to the elders.


The whole setting will be left for a while, as we believe the god will appreciate our offering. Again, we, because Chinese keeps the same practices during praying ceremony. We even have simple Q&A session to seek confirmation from our ancestors or gods that they have “consumed” those foods, before our turn.


I’ll be amazed by the beautiful rangoli drawings on the floor every time I am here for any celebration. This particular rangoli drawn with flour seems much simpler than those arranged with colored rice. It starts with coordinating simple dots, as the final design pattern will be formed circulating those dots.

Sounds simple enough, if Jambu and Elisa stop licking those flour away! Well, dog year is coming…


Back in the house, we are being seated for - - what else, food!!! My all time favorite, really. Our feast starts with sweetened rice with groundnuts, followed by puttu mayam served with delicious dal gravy.

And I enjoyed Ama’s coffee, strange thing is I was never a coffee lover. To share the same dining table with Apa was certainly a great experience, any given time. He would share some real interesting stories about Indian culture, his experience in India, or almost anything we wish to know.

Nandri - - Apa, Ama and everyone!!!


Just before I bid farewell to Siva I had a quick glance at their calendar. As expected I found the Gregorian and Tamil date printed with some Tamil writing. To my suprise the calendar that Ama insist to have for every New Year also includes a muslim date!


Late evening I found myself hanging around some bakery shop at Sri Damansara. I was with fellow SCI-Malaysia’s President, Nurul, getting some hand-gift before attending a memorial dinner for John’s beloved mother.

My attention goes neither to the “Please No Helmet” sign, nor Nurul’s ever smiling and cheerful face. It was the red-and-gold deco on the door that reminds me of the next BIG festival is on the way.

14 Comments:

At 6:14 PM, Blogger HappySurfer said...

Low, thanks for sharing the meaning behind this festival, Ponggal. The rangoli drawings, are they also called kolam? Interesting.

 
At 9:04 PM, Blogger Francis Ho said...

I'm quite impressed by your keen interests in the cultures and customs of the other msian races. Keep up the good work of keeping us informed with your interesting information and photos! Great!

 
At 10:35 PM, Blogger The Moody Minstrel said...

Okay, here's where I show my "ignorant Westerner" status very clearly so you all can laugh at me:

Low, I've noticed that a lot of your posts deal with ethnically Indian people and events. Thus far everyone I've met from Malaysia has been either ethnically Malay or Chinese. Does your country really have such a large Indian population as well?

Yell loudly when you answer my question. My head will be in a bucket.

 
At 12:52 AM, Blogger @ロウ 。LOW@ said...

happy, you are right. That simple drawings should be called kolam, as rangoli would refer to much complicated form.

Thank you, FH2o. I just have special interest in those cultural related stuff, haha!!

Dear Moody, generally our population stands at Malay(50%), Chinese(30%), Indian(10%) and other minority yet equally important groups like the natives, sikhs, etc. The figure is around 25 millions, i guess.

Actually i have some post on my Malay and Chinese friends, even some Native Temuan! Just that i hang out a lot with Indian friends lately, hehe!!!

Sorry, a little misleading (my post), eh? :p More of other festival is coming soon!

And i'm not yelling, of course :)

 
At 1:34 PM, Blogger Pandabonium said...

Thanks for sharing yet another interesting aspect of life in Malaysia.
Harvest festivals are nearly universal on our planet, at least amoung parts of the population still connected with the land.

Food sounds good too. :^P

 
At 7:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey! Ni hau ma? I can finally get in here, i guess i got lucky today cause i've tried before without sucess.

I was just reading and looking at your pics, i've realised all asian people, or at least most of them are very respectful of their traditions, and they seem to have many, you sure like celebrating, don't you? lol

Hope to see some Chinese New Year pics soon, i'm sure it'll be interesting, i'm afraid here is kind of a boring celebration, we don't have as many traditions.

Guessed who i am? lol
Take care and 'cool hugs'

 
At 7:55 PM, Blogger @ロウ 。LOW@ said...

Pandabonium...
Well, i guess we are all connected to the land, somehow. At least, we build our house on top soil...Yeah, you can't conclude any festival without foods, really!!! Hehe!!!

Dear Anonymous...
Hei!!! Wo hen hau, xie xie! This must be our lucky day :)

I think every culture have their very own traditions to celebrate, honour and keep. Of course I like to celebrate. I mean you will be happy not to mess with someone's teeth sometime, right? lol

Yeap, can't wait for the Chinese New Year. Biggest of all, for Chinese :p I'm sure there are many festival in your country! Do share with us sometimes :)))

And...guess who you are? There's only one person that i know now that needs "cool hugs", hehe!!!

Thanks for dropping by, more "cool hugs" for you! lol

 
At 11:36 AM, Blogger Lrong Lim said...

I love Indian food... and, you certainly know more of these festivals than I do... nice...

 
At 11:54 AM, Blogger Pandabonium said...

I just watched the clip with Siva singing, nice and really interesting. I laughed when I saw one of the dogs sleeping in the background, oblivious to it all.

Thanks.

Most people, particularly in cities, have any connection to the land. They don't work with it, get their hands in it, or see anything grow from it day by day. Most don't even know where their food comes from or how it is made possible. I think they have less appreciation for it as a result. If something happened to the food supply system, who among them would know how to provide for themselves?

 
At 9:12 PM, Blogger @ロウ 。LOW@ said...

lrong, I learn about this particular festival perhaps merely weeks before you, hehe...And they said life is a learning process, ain't it right? :)

Yes pandabonium, i took few clips but nothing can beat that one. Suddenly someone sang, and i've never thought that it will be Siva!!! Those two buddies - - sometime still forgotten my "scent". I didn't pay enough visits, I guess.

Supply system, interesting. Most of the time we took nearly everything for granted. One could not imagine life without simple things like power and water.

It's good to know that life can be something else other than what we live in right. I think i'm gonna go jungle trekking again soon, haha!!!

 
At 10:34 AM, Blogger Robin CHAN said...

Wow.. interesting post...

Sad to say I know nothing about this ceremony ... although in Singapore, we have Little India at Serangoon Road.

 
At 1:41 AM, Blogger S said...

its amazing to see how many indian festivals are celebrated in countries other than India! great post Low, and you'll be receiving that postcard soon :)

 
At 9:33 AM, Blogger @ロウ 。LOW@ said...

Hmm, Robin maybe you are too busy saving the world lol We travel out, others travel in. Sometimes we may not need to travel around the world to see some amazing things.

Oh S! I can't wait for the postcard! I'll be out of the city from 27th Jan till 6th Feb to celebrate Chinese New Year in my hometown. Hopefully your postcard will be resting in my mailbox by then! Thank you so much!

 
At 11:26 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Very interesting, I appreciate it very much.

 

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