When is Thai Pongal Celebrated?

Thai Pongal is celebrated on January 14th every year. The month of Thai (January) is the harvest season in the Tamil homeland spanning from Tamil Nadu to Tamil Eelam. Pongal refers to rice cooked in milk and sweetened with brown sugar (chakkarai, from which the English word jaggery is derived).

On a full scale it is a three-day festival of nature-worship. It includes feeding the birds that are part of the beauty of nature, and offering thanks to the cattle, Mattu Pongal, which gives milk and plough the fields. Jallikkattu is a peaceful sport involving bulls celebrated by young men as a part of 3-day Thai Pongal.