Village Pongal

My native village Vallaypatti, is a small village near srivilliputtur in southern part of TamilNadu. It is 65kms from Madurai. It is quite famous for its rules against using and selling tobacco products, there is a total ban on selling tobacco products in shops in village. The ban has been in place for more than 50 years, way to see the effects of tobacco so early and ban it. There is a ban on selling seasoned fish( fondly called karuvadu) , since it was the agent for spreading lot of contagious disease. There were lot of articles written in famous newspapers and vernaculars on the Tobacco Ban.

Village and the agricultural lands owned by the villagers are in the leeward side of Western Ghats. Major rainfall happens during the North East Monsoon during months of October and November. Rice, Red Small Onions and Peanuts are the usual crops cultivated. They will sow the seeds after the rain and it takes 90-120 days to grow, harvesting will be done during march end or early part of April. Essence of Harvest Festival in any part of the world is to thank the mother earth or nature for the bountiful yield, it is same in my village too, harvest festival/pongal is celebrated in the last week of April or first week of May. It is the time when most of the villagers will have money in their hand.

For the village of its size (300-400 houses) it surprisingly high literacy rate and there is always a stress given on education. As it with any village in India there was lot of migration towards cities for doing business or education or work. People from village(most of them my relatives) are settled in lot of places in around in India and around the world. Harvest Festival in my village is for thanking Goddess Kali( there is a kali temple in my village) Harvest Festival usually acts like a catalyst for bringing everyone to one place and it is more of a family re-union. Since it falls under a school or colleges vacation time, it is ball for kids and teenagers.

Festivities around the Harvest Festival/Pongal are the best part. My favorite is the games being conducted for all ages for fun and show casing their skills. There will be a cricket tournament around that time organized for harvest festival and my village had a very good team, mostly they would win it. Game is played with "CARC" ball it is actually a hockey ball man it hurts when it hits you and guys play without pad or shoes, hats off to their gutsy approach. There will be definitely another cricket match for guys who have moved outside village to guys who are in village, it mostly the friendly rivalry with lot of banter going around it is fun to play and watch. There will be games for kids like lemon and spoon race, balloon bursting ( i remember i cried running to my mom when i was a 4 or 5 year old since some kid burst my balloon), filling the soda bottle with water.

Each house in the village has to contribute for the expenses of Harvest Festival, they call it "ThalaKattu Vari" head count tax, it is based on the number of married couples in a family. Actual Festival is for two days. First Day function usually starts with "Agni Chatti" (a clay pot with burning charcoal in it) they carry it for 2 days around the village, it is a very very intense form of worship, to thank kali for answering there prayers. There will be "Nayanadi Melam crew" accompanying them through the villages. They will stop in each and every house in the village and the house will mix turmeric in water and pour it over the person carrying "Agni Chatti", way to cool their body down in the intense heat of summer. Mostly family members of the person carrying "Agni Chatti" will accompany them the whole two days.



There will be a goat from every family/house in the village that will be grown for the purpose of sacrificing it to Kali during the Pongal Festival. It will be taken care really really well. The only part what i don't like in the whole festival is sacrificing the pampered goat. Sons in the family will take the goat to the temple for sacrifice, after the goat is sacrificed they will clean it and carry the meat back to house for food in the morning. I will go vegetarian during the Pongal Festival. Sacrifices have been part of the culture for eons and I am not going to ask them to stop it since i am not doing it or i don't like it. Women from the village will keep pongal in the Kali temple in midnight, usual with any festivities they will clad their new sarees for keeping pongal.


Next Day starts with us waking up to good food, there are lot of vegetarians in my family so there will be vegetarian food cooked in my house in village and non vegetarian food in my uncles house. Guys generally have food and leave to the cricket ground for a game of cricket and assemble back to get ready for the evening festivities.

A way villagers predict how the harvest for the next year will be is through doing something called molapari. Women who are going to do molapari will sow the seeds(I guess it is mustard seeds) in a pot in the temple and the temple priest will take care of watering it and taking care of it, how big the molapari grows is an indication on how bountiful the harvest will be for that family. Molapari will be kept in the temple and that is where young girls/women will dance around it by clapping the hands, the dance form is called "Gummi" . Then the Molapari will be taken in a procession by the women( they carry it in their head), to the small pond in the village and it will be dipped/mixed into water.



Agni Chatti that was being carried around the village will be brought to the temple. It kind off culminates the function. Then there is another small celebration where the broken coconuts devoid of the shells will be thrown out to the waiting crowd outside the temple from the temple wall by young men. More fun is for catching that compared to actually eating it.

Then there will be stage performances like Dramas which will run whole night or karakattam with nayandi melam. Usually dramas will be harichandran, ramayanam etc...
Youngsters does not have a liking for drama, but usually old people sit and watch it the whole night. There will be refreshment stalls selling hot tea and Bajjis the whole night, they really do brisk business. Life gets back to normal after the pongal ....