Pongal Festival: As we all know Pongal is a festival of showing gratefulness to mother nature and it is celebrated for 4 days continuously on thanking various lifeforms that help us on producing food hence why this festival is named PONGAL.

PONGAL is named after the overflowing of milk after boiling in Tamil. January 14th is celebrated as Pongal because the Thai month starts on January 14th on the Tamil solar calendar

Rice is the major food of INDIANS, and to celebrate the start of the harvesting by thanking God, the sun, the cattle who helped us to get this food and the farmers make Pongal with the newly harvested rice. Apart from farmers, all the others make Pongal from the usual rice, milk, and jaggery.

And, all those 4 days of Pongal have been celebrated differently by various people from south India. We have also combined all these and brought them for you to visit and cherish the beauty as well as the tradition of the Indians.

To see the complete enchanter of the thanksgiving festival of India, we need to visit different parts of south India

So, here we came up with the top-notch places to visit and get mesmerized

• Bohi Pongal – Kanaga durga temple, Vijayawada
• Surya Pongal – Madurai
• Maatu Pongal – Tanjore
• Kaanum Pongal – Aatukal

Bohi Pongal – Kanaga durga temple - Vijayawada

Bohi Pongal is termed Bhogi Panduga by the Telugu people. The word Panduga means celebration. On this day of celebration, the Telugu people’s major ritual is to do Bhogi Pallu for kids.

Showering kids with the seasonal fruits and flowers to keep them away from the evil eye to see this ceremony and the happy faces of the kids then you must visit Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

To make it more specific one must visit VIJAYAWADA to witness the beauty of “ bhogi panduga” by visiting the kanaka Durga temple, where Goddess Durga was killed Mahishasura and you can also enjoy the beauty of the Krishna river and Indrakeeladri Hill. If you are planning to visit this famous temple do visit during the Bhogi Panduga to see the bonfire set.

And to display the Hindu tradition the temple’s main mandapa has been decorated with lots of toys has been arranged for Bommalu Koluvu.

Also, you can see and enjoy the village tradition of Telugu people called Gangireddu Vinyasalu where they make bull to dance.

On top of that, you can get the blessings of Durga Amman on this special day.

Surya Pongal – Madurai

Madurai is the place where temples, valour, and tradition are born and the people in Madurai still keep following all the traditions and they never give up at any cost and If you wish to see the ancestor culture then definitely, you have to visit Madurai where you can also see the famous bull-taming sport popularly known as JALLIKATTU on the whole month of Pongal that takes place in and around Madurai.

You can also enjoy seeing various sports that include bull in it called as majuvirattu, erthukattu vizha.

Apart from this, you can admire the architectural beauty of Meenakshi Amman Temple, Thirumalai Nayakar Mahal, Gandhi Museum, and Thiruparankundram.

Maatu Pongal – Tanjore

Tanjore will remind us of the hypnotizing beauty of the Chola dynasty that is none other than Brihadeeshwara Temple along with that the whole city is covered with colourful rice flour rangolis and all the cows were lined up for the enchanting puja set in front of the temple to highlight the charismatic view of the temple.

If you are planning to spend your maatu Pongal holiday with a positive vibe of worshipping thousands of cattle at a place, then you must not miss visiting Tanjore Brihadeeshwara temple.

Kaanum Pongal – Kanyakumari

It is mentioned as Thiruvalluvar day by the state of Tamil Nadu in order to pay tribute to the great poet Thiruvalluvar who is known for his couplet poetry about life ethics and poetry has been translated in many languages to learn and cherish the truth about life and the art of living.

So if you wish to pay tribute as well to this great poet then you must visit Kanyakumari where you can enjoy the beauty of the tri sea and the sculpture of Thiruvalluvar standing tall in the middle of the sea with a height of 133 ft that is 41 meters tall.

During kaanum Pongal, thousands of people make a visit to Kanyakumari, along with Thiruvalluvar you can attain peace by visiting the Vivekananda rock memorial, Vattakottai and also enjoy the fantabulous beauty of thiruparappu falls and have a cool bath which has the swimming pool for the children to enjoy as well.

Enjoy your Pongal holidays with your family by visiting various cities in south India to witness and learn the cultural diversity and the rituals that are followed during Pongal and also have fun by visiting the other nearby tourist spots to spend quality time with your family.

Happy visiting on Pongal…..