The Harvest Festival

Pongal, the harvest festival is one of the biggest festivals in the villages of TamilNadu.It is celebrated over 4 days with a lot of song and dance and sports. This year the monsoon was very good and so was the harvest. The harvest festival is celebrated all over India under different names. This celebration is actually thanksgiving to the nature for the good harvest for the year. The farmers offer the first food to the surya, the sun god. Bull fighting is the biggest sport of the season. It is held on the third day of the festival. Called as Jallikattu it tests the courage of the participants. The winner, who catches the bull by its horn, is usually offered cash prize. Pongal unlike many Indian festivals follows the solar calendar. Usually it falls on 14th January every year.