V is For Vegetables

Raw Bananas

Do-Something-Everyday, June 8, 2016

It is letter V for this week on ABC Wednesday. I am choosing 'vegetables' as the word for letter V.
The photos below are of street vendors selling produce during the Pongal season in Tamilnadu. Pongal is a harvest festival celebrated during the second week of January. The feast for the festival is built around vegetables, fruits, legumes, beans and rice.

Turmeric Roots

Thanks for visiting.

Pongal Season, Chennai January 2015

January is absolutely the best month to be in Chennai. The weather is incredibly balmy, trees are leafy and green, the mosquitoes behave themselves and the entire city is colorful and in a celebratory mood for the Pongal festival.

It is the season for music festival, arts and crafts shows, textile exhibitions and weddings.

It is the celebration of nature's bounty, winter harvest and the beginning of Sun's northern ascension. In a country where still seventy-five percent of the population lives in villages, Pongal brings farmers and their livestock to the center stage in a grateful acknowledgment of their labor and toil in feeding the country's billion people. Pongal itself means an overflowing cooking pot and every Tamil kitchen at the appointed hour witnesses the milk and rice boiling over the cooking pot. Unsurprisingly, the three-day harvest festival  is also celebrated with varieties of food preparation based on rice and vegetables.

Just before the start of the festival, roadside are filled with carts and stalls of fresh winter vegetables, sugarcane, raw turmeric and fruits.

It is the time for families to do things together.

Even the birds get to partake in the feast!

If cultures reveal their heart and soul in what they celebrate,then Pongal festival is Tamil culture at its best.

Happy Pongal!

Happy Pongal!

Tomorrow (January 13) is the first day of Pongal, a three-day festival celebrated in Tamilnadu. Pongal, which  means "flow over", is a harvest festival, but celebrated by all Tamilians. The most popular icon of Pongal festival is a cooking pot with sugarcane shoots tied on the sides and brimming over with steaming milk and rice. The overflowing pot is a symbol of auspicious beginnings and is heralded with the banging of metallic plates and spoons (kind of drum roll). I remember doing it when I was little and it was fun. Growing up, Pongal was always fun mainly because of all the wonderful food my mother used to make for three days and no school either. Just eating and playing!

In the countryside it is a big event--the farmers paint and decorate their house, throw away old and unwanted things, buy new clothes, prepare feasts and have country fairs where they bring livestock all spruced up and painted. And everywhere, people celebrate it by making varieties of rice dishes--sweet rice, lemon rice, coconut rice, tamarind rice, yogurt rice--all accompanied by a medley of vegetables. 

Pongal celebrates the transit of Sun into the sign of Capricorn (Thai) and the beginning ofuttaranayana punyakala or the northern ascension of the Sun (its 6-month transit over the northern hemisphere). That is why, the month of Thai  is also celebrated as the season of hope and new beginnings. 

HAPPY PONGAL EVERYONE!

Thanks for visiting. Submitted to Illustration Friday's this week's theme "MYTH".

Artwork by Indira

New Beginnings: Pongal

I am currently in Chennai, Tamilnadu, India visiting my sister. Entire Tamilnadu is gearing up for Pongal, a three-day festival, starting on January 14. Pongal, which  means "flow over", is a harvest festival, but celebrated by all Tamilians. The most popular icon of Pongal festival is a cooking pot with a sugarcane shoot tied to the side and, brimming over with steaming rice. Pongal celebrates the transit of Sun into the sign of Capricorn (Thai) and the beginning of uttaranayana punyakala or the northern ascension of the Sun (its 6-month transit over the northern hemisphere). Hence, the month of Thai  is also celebrated as the season of hope and new beginnings. You can read more about this festival in the post I did last year .

To commemorate the beginning of new season of light and hope, I created the aceo above as a response to Mixed Media Monday Challenge: Size Matters. This is a first for me, since my usual canvas size for mixed media is 8" by 11".  I have found the idea of creating art on a canvas measuring just 2.5"X3.5" both intimidating and fascinating. Now that I have done it, I am hooked. This artwork is also a response to Etsy Melange Team January Challenge Beginnings.

HAPPY PONGAL!!!

January 14: New Beginnings

In Hindu calendar, Sun's northern ascension or the winter solstice occurs on January 14. In Tamilnadu (my homestate) it is the start of the month of Thai or Makara (Capricorn). It is celebrated with three days of harvest festival called the Pongal. Pongal is actually a dish made of rice and lentils and on this occasion the dish is the made from the new rice just harvested. Since it is a harvest festival, on the countryside it is a big event--the farmers paint and decorate their house, throw away old and unwanted things, buy new clothes, prepare feasts and have country fairs where they bring livestock all spruced up and painted. And everywhere, people celebrate it by making varieties of rice dishes--sweet rice, lemon rice, coconut rice, tamarind rice, yogurt rice--all accompanied by medley of vegetables. One of the hallmark of pongal celebration is the beautiful designs that young girls and women draw on the entrance way of their homes using white and colored rice flour .


It is the season for new beginnings and the month of Makara (Jan 14-Feb 13) is considered the most auspicious period for weddings. It is the busiest month for weddings and it is not uncommon to have to attend 2-3 weddings a week just in this month alone. My own daughter was married to Scott, on January 18 the first auspicious day of the month, four years ago in Chennai, Tamilandu. A very happy day it was!


HAPPY PONGAL!