Pongal
பொங்கல்
POHN-gul
Tamil four-day harvest festival, also the name of the sweet rice dish cooked for it.
Meaning & usage
Pongal marks the end of the Tamil month Margazhi and the start of Thai, around mid-January, and runs across four days: Bhogi, Thai Pongal, Mattu Pongal (honouring cattle) and Kaanum Pongal. The festival is named after the dish that defines it — newly harvested rice boiled in milk with jaggery, allowed to bubble over as a sign of plenty. The shout "Pongalo Pongal!" goes up the moment the pot froths over.
In a sentence
The pot bubbled over and the whole courtyard shouted Pongalo Pongal.
Common spelling variants
- Pongol
Pongal is the canonical English spelling used in MG Mini puzzles.