Mattu Pongal
Makar Sankranti is a festival that marks the start of northern declination of the Sun from the Zodiac sign of Sagittarius to Capricorn, which according to Tamil calendar usually falls on 14 January.
[4][5][6][7][8] The festival day is also a special occasion when the landlord and the peasant, rich and poor, old and young all dine together in a spirit of bonhomie without any restraint of caste and creed.
The festival is thus an occasion when the fresh harvests from the fields are shared in the form of food and sweets not only with the community but also with animals and birds.
[9][10] The Pongal festival also represents celebration of "fertility and renewal" and is observed either for three days or four-days, after the end of the monsoon season and rice (paddy) crop is harvested.
On this day it is spring cleaning, as people decorate their homes, buy new vessels and burn old and unwanted items.
[11] On all four days, Shiva's consort Parvati and their son Ganesha are worshipped and the Pongal – the rice preparation – is offered to them in the puja and thereafter to the cattle.
The neck of the pot in which Pongal rice is prepared is tied with fresh turmeric leaves and pieces of sugarcane.
Then, pongal-rice along with turmeric, ginger, sugar cane, yellow garlands and a stick that is used to drive the bulls are also placed as offering to Ganesha.
[5] The cow–keepers dressed in their regale sprinkle the cattle with saffron water with mango leaves with prayers to protect them from evil and shout the popular slogan of the festival, "பொங்கலோ பொங்கல்!"
This prayer is a special wish for the progressive prosperity and growth of the cattle population, with the blessings of Indra and Krishna (Gopala), who was a cowherd.
Devotees pay their respect to cows by bending down, like praying in a temple, and touching their feet and foreheads, followed by an aarti (showing camphor flame to the object of praise) and offering the cattle prasad (food offering, in this case is called Sakkar Pongal – a delicacy cooked of rice, moong dal (green gram) with jaggery and dry fruits).
Big commotion is seen when the game "Jallikattu" or "Manji Virattu" starts in which groups of young men chase the running bulls.
[16][17] As result of deaths of young men, the Supreme Court was approached to stop this festival, as it was considered inhuman and dangerous.
The plea made was that the Jallikattu was "backward, dangerous, a violation of animals’ rights and detrimental to India's modernizing image."
Finally, on assurances given by the State government that enough security and safety arrangements would be provided at all such sports locations in the villages, Jallikattu has been permitted to be observed as part of the Mattu Pongal festival.
A two tier high bamboo fencing is also erected between the bull ring and the audience who come to witness the fight in large numbers.
[18] The winter solstice is the date of Sun entering Capricorn in both the traditions that coincides with Makara Sankranti (called Uttarayana meaning the return of the luminary to the northern region), the first day of the new year starting with the month Magha according to the Hindu Tamil calendar.
The time of the year, the decorating of the cattle, the sprinkling of them with water, and the very purport of the blessing, that they may be exempt from evils, are so decidedly Indian, that could a Dravira Brahmin be set down of a sudden in the Piazza, and when he asked what ceremony he witnessed, there can be no doubt of his answer; he would at once declare they were celebrating the Pongal.
