Happy Thai Pongal 2021

Colourful earthenware pot for sale for the coming Pongal festival.

 

If you had noticed stalls selling sugarcane stalks complete with leaves, colourful earthenware pots, flowers and coconut leaf garlands recently in past few days is because the Thai Pongal or Pongal festival is coming up tomorrow on 14th January 2021. This festival marks the beginning of the Thai month in the Tamil calendar.

 

The festival is known as Makar Sankranti and is one of the few Indian festivals based on solar calendar terms as hence will always fall within a day or two from 14 January and marks the transition of the Sun into Capricorn.

As the majority of Indians in Malaysia are from Southern India, the festival is celebrated as Pongal here, and the name actually refers to the rice milk porridge cooked on that day in earthen pots and allowed to overflow upon boiling (a sign of abundance) and is regarded as thanksgiving. The porridge is then offered to the gods and then to family members.

 

Sugarcanes for sale for Pongal

Specifically for this festival, the Sakkarai Pongal (short grained rice cooked in jaggery and milk and and then garnished with ghee, cashew nuts and raisins) is cooked in the morning of the festival. Three sugarcane stalks are usually tied in a tripod fashion and stood over the pot used to cook the Sakkarai Pongal, hence you see the sale of sugarcane stalks by the stalls.

 

Happy Thai Pongal 2021 from Malaysia!