The first festival of the year - Pongal 'O' Pongal. It is the harvest festival in India and is celebrated over 4 fun days. The Center was decorated traditionally with Kolam, Maavilai Thoranam (Garland), Sugarcane and Pongal art. This year Pongal celebrations began with the lighting of the lamp by our helper Akkas. This was followed by decorating of the Pongal pot by our children with Haldi, kumkum and flowers. The overflow of boiled milk from the pot , an important ritual during te festival, was thematically represented by placing a ball of cotton over the pot. The Pongal dance was a super hit show. The children and teachers, all dressed up in traditional attire, danced around Master Abishek who was the drummer. The children did the steps that they learnt during dance time. They danced to a song that explained the sequence from sowing to harvesting crops.
It was then time to play some traditional games. 'Rekla race' is a popular sport in villages where bullock carts race against one another at great speed. To represent this sport, our children played 'Pushing the tyre' with their friends and teachers cheering them on. Another fun game 'Uriyadi' was also played. This game involves using a stick to smash a small earthen pot which is tied high up between two poles. The twist is that this has to be done with eyes tied with a blindfold. Not very easy right:-). 'Uriyadi' was customised for our children. Instead of an earthen pot, a bucket of flowers was tied to the poles. This gave a lovely shower of flowers when the children hit the bucket. It was so beautiful and appeared like a showering of blessings for Ekadaksha. The children enjoyed both the games with great interest, focus and fun.
As always, Pongal is incomplete without a yummy snack of Sweet pongal and vadais. A thanksgiving festival for the year's harvest, Pongal indeed was a celebration with positivity and best wishes all around Ekadaksha.Congratulations to Ms. Akila and Ms. Sindhuja for putting up a wonderful show.
