Page:Hindu Feasts Fasts and Ceremonies.djvu/35

Rh of the Tamil month of Tai (Sans. Makara). It is a New Year’s day astronomically, and commences approximately on the 12th January every year. It is observed by the Hindus by offering boiled rice in milk to propitiate the Sun-god. Hence the feast is called the Pongal, which in Tamil means boiled rice. This feast is also called the Uttarayana feast, as the sun commences his journey towards the North on this day. Sankranti or Sankramana, which is the Aryan name for the Pongal, means the entrance of the sun into the sign Capricorn.

The Pongal is observed as a day for the special worship of the sun throughout India by the Hindus. Everything sweet is supposed to please the sun-god. So rice with sugar and milk is cooked on this day in every Hindu household. The sun-god is worshipped in the courtyard of the house with diagrams in red mud describing the sun and the moon, and puja is performed on a large scale. The Pongal food, which consists of sugar-cane and sugar-candy forms the chief offering to the god. This also constitutes the first course in a Hindu dinner. Rich men regard this day as a meritorious one for making charitable donations, and every