Seamstress and doting grandmother Shanmugam Neela, 66, who recently travelled from Tamil Nadu to Singapore to visit her daughter and grandchildren, joyfully and briskly completed the preparations for the Pongal festival on Jan 15 morning.
Residing in Toa Payoh, the family welcomed the auspicious month of Thai by preparing the traditional Pongal dish and worshipping the Sun God. The entrance of their home was adorned with stalks of sugarcane, while the floor featured vibrant kolams (traditional floor art) depicting sugarcane and pongal pots.
Hailing from AthikaduThekkur in Tamil Nadu’s Sivaganga district, Mrs Neela shared enthusiastic memories of the rich, traditional celebrations back home. “In both my birthplace of Pudukkottai and the village I moved to after marriage, Pongal is celebrated with great grandeur,” she said.
“On the day of Thai Pongal, we cook the dish at home first, then join the rest of the villagers to cook together as an offering to the Sun and the village deities. When the milk boils over the pot, conch shells are blown, and the women raise the traditional “kulavai” sound (ululation),” she said.
Mrs Neela also highlighted the significance of Maattu Pongal (Cattle Pongal) and the unique customs associated with it.
According to their village tradition, empty pots are placed in a row of pits dug in the cowshed of a household from the shepherd community. Fires are then lit beneath them. An oracle (saamiyadi), carrying a large pot of milk wrapped in an eight-cubit dhoti, would then pour the milk into the heated pots, which would instantly froth.
Having grown up in a family that raised 20 cows, her stories reflect a deep affection for the animals and gratitude for their hard work.
“After performing rituals to ward off the “evil eye: for the cattle, the Manjuvirattu (a sport similar to Jallikattu/bull taming) takes place. The whole village comes alive when the young men participate in the sport,” she added with a bright smile.
Born and raised in such a traditional environment, her daughter, Mrs Shanmugam Tamilselvi, moved to Singapore in 2006 and married a Singaporean. Mrs Tamilselvi, who works as an IT professional in a bank, has two sons.
Realising that Pongal celebrations in the Singaporean Indian community were different, Mrs Tamilselvi convinced her mother-in-law to enrich her home celebrations by incorporating additional customs,
They include tying the Pongal pot with fresh turmeric bunches and hand-drawing intricate maakolams (rice flour patterns).
The family expressed their delight at seeing the significance of Pongal grow in Singapore over the last 20 years. Mrs Neela specifically praised the initiative of bringing cows to Little India, allowing the public to witness the traditions firsthand.
janark@sph.com.sg
