{"id":11089,"date":"2017-01-03T11:48:08","date_gmt":"2017-01-03T11:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ganesh.com\/ganeshproducts\/ganeshproducts\/2017\/01\/03\/kerala-pongal-festival-cultural-religious-beliefs\/"},"modified":"2017-01-03T11:48:08","modified_gmt":"2017-01-03T11:48:08","slug":"kerala-pongal-festival-cultural-religious-beliefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ganesh.com\/ganeshproducts\/blog\/2017\/01\/03\/kerala-pongal-festival-cultural-religious-beliefs\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerala Pongal Festival: Cultural &#038; Religious Beliefs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Joy and thankfulness to God<\/strong> is the base of every <strong>Hindu festival<\/strong>. When it comes to the great <strong>cultural diversity<\/strong> and <strong>Indian religious beliefs<\/strong>, <strong>Pongal in south India<\/strong> is one such festival that is popular for varied cultured traditions. The festival is also celebrated in north India with the name &#8216;<strong>Sankranthi<\/strong>&#8216;. People pray to the <strong>Sun God<\/strong> on this occasion, as it is very powerful and helps in the growth of the paddy and other plantations. Therefore, this festival is very <strong>important for the farmers<\/strong> specially.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Astronomical &amp; Religious Significance<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pongal boasts of being the <strong>only Hindu festival that follows a solar calendar<\/strong> and is celebrated on the <strong>January 14<\/strong>, every year. Astronomically, this is the time when <strong>Uttarayana<\/strong> (the Sun&#8217;s movement towards north for a six month period) begins. This is considered very auspicious among Hindus. A number of important events are scheduled during this period.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Celebrations<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pongal, the <strong>four-day celebration<\/strong>, is basically a <strong>Dravidian Harvest festiva<\/strong>l. The <strong>first day \u00e2\u20ac\u201c &#8216;Bhogi Pongal&#8217;<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is known for domestic activities and is celebrated in the honor of <strong>Lord Indra<\/strong>. The <strong>second day \u00e2\u20ac\u201c &#8216;Surya Pongal&#8217;<\/strong> is dedicated to the <strong>Sun God<\/strong> and lets you enjoy various cultural activities. The <strong>third day is &#8216;Mattu Pongal&#8217;<\/strong> which is the festival of cattle (milk giver animals). It is <strong>dedicated to Lord Ganesha and Goddess Parvati<\/strong>. The <strong>last one is &#8216;Kaanum Pongal&#8217;<\/strong> when people spend time together and visit their friends or relatives.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Temples<\/strong><strong> are decorated<\/strong> with bells, drums, rangoli etc. <strong>Sweets<\/strong>, especially made of <strong>rice<\/strong>, are cooked and offered to the Sun God as a ritual. <strong>People also decorate their houses<\/strong> with garlands and colourful <strong>rangoli<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joy and thankfulness to God is the base of every Hindu festival. When it comes to the great cultural diversity and Indian religious beliefs, Pongal in south India is one such festival<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ganesh.com\/ganeshproducts\/blog\/2017\/01\/03\/kerala-pongal-festival-cultural-religious-beliefs\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4140],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ganesh.com\/ganeshproducts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11089"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ganesh.com\/ganeshproducts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ganesh.com\/ganeshproducts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ganesh.com\/ganeshproducts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ganesh.com\/ganeshproducts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ganesh.com\/ganeshproducts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ganesh.com\/ganeshproducts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ganesh.com\/ganeshproducts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ganesh.com\/ganeshproducts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}