By Siddhanth Rameeswaran
Siddhanth : Amma, tomorrow there is no school because it is a
public holiday for the Chinese! It’s their New Year. My Chinese
friends are all celebrating it.
Amma : Yes, We also have our own festivals, too. Can you tell
me what we celebrate?
Siddhanth : I know! I know! We celebrate Deepavali!
Amma : Do you know what else we celebrate as Hindus?
Siddhanth : I know! We also celebrate Pongal and Tamil New
Year.
Amma : Do you know what we just celebrated last month?
Siddhanth : Yes! Last month we celebrated Pongal. And, this
year, our Tamil New Year is on April 14, correct? Can you please
explain to me about these celebrations, Amma?
Amma : Pongal is also known as Thai Pongal, a harvest festival
which is celebrated to thank the Sun God and Lord Indra for
helping farmers in getting better crops. Usually, it is celebrated
for three days. The First Day is Thai Pongal, celebrated by all
families, the second day is Maatu Pongal. Do you know what
Mattu means?
Siddhanth : Yes, it means cow. Does this mean Cow Pongal?
Amma : Yes. This means to thank the cows for giving us milk.
The Third Day Pongal is Kanni Pongal. Kanni means young and
unmarried woman. On this day, a young unmarried woman will
make a pongal to pray and wish for a good husband. Do you
remember how we celebrated Pongal last year?
Siddhanth : Yes. I helped Appa to tie sugarcanes and hung them
up on the mango leaves in front of the house. You made kolam
at the entrance. I still remember that!
Amma : Do you still remember how we made the pongal?
Siddhanth : We cooked brown sugar rice in an earthen pot on
the stove. And, we cooked and ate vegetarian food. But the
best celebration every year is still Deepavali. Now can you tell
me about Deepavali, please?
Amma : Deepavali Is known as the Festival Of Lights and this is
the most important festival for Hindus. It is a celebration of
good over evil or light over darkness. Let me tell you the story.
A long time ago In the Kingdom of Ayodhya, there lived a prince
named Rama and his brother, Laksmana. Both were warriors
and were sent to exile the forest for 40 years. Rama had a wife
named Sita who was very beautiful. One day Rama and
Laksmana went to hunt in the forest and left Sita in the hut.
Then the demon Ravana disguised himself as a poor old man
and went into the hut where Sita was living and begged for
some food. When Sita came back from the kitchen to give the
old man some fruit, Ravana kidnapped her and took her to his
palace in Lanka.
When Rama came back and heard about this, he became very
sad so he asked Hanuman, the God Of The Wind, to ask his
tribe to build a bridge to cross the river on the way to Lanka.
The tribe constructed a bridge out of stones to cross the river.
When they finally made their way to Lanka, they found the
palace. Ravana sent his son to defeat the army of monkeys but
he did not complete his mission. So Ravana sent an army of
soldiers to fight against them. The war was won by Rama’s
soldiers, who cut off all ten of Ravana’s heads.
When Rama and the monkeys won, they returned to Ayodhya
and all of the people were happy and they lived happily ever
after. So now, do you know what Deepavali means?
Siddhanth : Yes, Deepavali is the festival of light. It is light
versus darkness! Thanks, Amma, for explaining to me why we
celebrate our festivals.
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