-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Happy Pongal
- Thread starter Vinayaka
- Start date
Last year at least the sun was out, just hazy clouds this year. In reality harvest or spring festivals make no sense bringing them to a new climate where dates don't match. Just like we need to change our clocks, we need to change festival dates to the local situation too. Tamils could do Thai Pongal at Thanksgiving, for example. Thai Pusam is even worse, if somebody wants to do outside penance like rolling or kavadi. I suppose rolling in the snow with only a veshti would be a penance all right. Frostbite penance.
Viraja
Jaya Jagannatha!
But Vinayaka ji, Pongal is celebrated to also commemorate the entry of Sun into the sign of Capricorn (makara). Popular theories suggest that this marks the beginning of Summer in the world of the devas.
I believe that this period, rather this exact date might have something to do with the entry of Sun into the Galactic point that is better known to be the Evolutionary axis of our solar system, marking the Galactic center and epi-center. (The Cancer-Capricorn axis).
I do not know too much about the above, apart from basic info.
On browsing, I find very interesting material, quoting: (Ref: Chapter 12 of Galactic Alignment: The Lost Knowledge of the Ancients)
Yes, I get how it's astrologically significant, just not the specifics. It's just the cold that is annoying. To their credit though, because there is flexibility in you set local temple festivals, most groups here chose a more suitable time, like mid summer. Ours is when the days are late, so evenings are really beautiful. We are about latitude 54. The dates will never change, nor should they.
Viraja
Jaya Jagannatha!
[QUOTE="Vinayaka, post: 5461190, member: 27944" Ours is when the days are late, so evenings are really beautiful. We are about latitude 54. [/QUOTE]
How beautiful is your above statement! I just imagined long, long days, and evenings filled with peace and bliss, when late at night, reflective and meditative folks gather around the home shrine to remember god... so blissful! No words to describe the feeling! I've never been a morning person, my worships always are in the evening, I can relate to what you say!
(Also reminds me of the song, "Among the fields of Barley..." for some reason.).
How beautiful is your above statement! I just imagined long, long days, and evenings filled with peace and bliss, when late at night, reflective and meditative folks gather around the home shrine to remember god... so blissful! No words to describe the feeling! I've never been a morning person, my worships always are in the evening, I can relate to what you say!
(Also reminds me of the song, "Among the fields of Barley..." for some reason.).
How beautiful is your above statement! I just imagined long, long days, and evenings filled with peace and bliss, when late at night, reflective and meditative folks gather around the home shrine to remember god... so blissful! No words to describe the feeling! I've never been a morning person, my worships always are in the evening, I can relate to what you say!
(Also reminds me of the song, "Among the fields of Barley..." for some reason.).[/QUOTE]
New Tamil immigrants get confused here for the first couple of summers. When they look at the watch and it's 9PM, sun is just setting, they think their watch is broken. So too for the sampradaya monks if they're here midsummer. They go 'What?"
In the opposite way, I got confused in India with sunrise/sunset.
BTW, I am totally a morning person. Ganga is the night owl.
Last edited:
Viraja
Jaya Jagannatha!
Yes, not only it causes confusion, but also sleep disturbances and even behavioral/mental health issues in some... It seems the more the merrier is not always true... quite on the reverse, gloomy days cause depressed mood even in otherwise normal folks like me... So much for Sun and his worship!
Aupmanyav
Be your own guru
Happy Pongal/Lohri/Makar Samkranti, Bihu, etc. Had to take my bath early, remembered my ancestors, prayed in the evening with five kind of laddoos (modakam), ate traditional Risotto/Khichri (Dal Rice) at dinner.
"Makar Sankranti is one of the most important festivals of the Hindu calendar and celebrates the sun's journey into the northern hemisphere, a period which is considered to be highly auspicious."
BBC - Religions - Hinduism: Makar Sankranti
If we celebrate it for this reason, 'sun moving north', winter solstice (Dec. 21), then it is wrong by 24 days. Makar Sankranti and winter solstice coincided some time around 500 AD. Was that the time when the calendar was changed from from Nakshatras to Rashi? That was the time of the astronomer Varahamihira, and perhaps the change is because of him.
"The lag of 23 days since the actual date of winter solstice (December 21/22) is due to error in the Hindu calendar."
Makar Sankranti - Wikipedia
It is not really an error but a change that Hindu society accepted. In an Amavasyanta calendar the difference will perhaps just be eight days, which must have been considered not unreasonable, otherwise we wold have needed to change the calendar by 15 day every 1,000 years.
Depend on Aupmanyav to take the discussion on a tangent, but it is information if someone values it.
"Makar Sankranti is one of the most important festivals of the Hindu calendar and celebrates the sun's journey into the northern hemisphere, a period which is considered to be highly auspicious."
BBC - Religions - Hinduism: Makar Sankranti
If we celebrate it for this reason, 'sun moving north', winter solstice (Dec. 21), then it is wrong by 24 days. Makar Sankranti and winter solstice coincided some time around 500 AD. Was that the time when the calendar was changed from from Nakshatras to Rashi? That was the time of the astronomer Varahamihira, and perhaps the change is because of him.
"The lag of 23 days since the actual date of winter solstice (December 21/22) is due to error in the Hindu calendar."
Makar Sankranti - Wikipedia
It is not really an error but a change that Hindu society accepted. In an Amavasyanta calendar the difference will perhaps just be eight days, which must have been considered not unreasonable, otherwise we wold have needed to change the calendar by 15 day every 1,000 years.
Depend on Aupmanyav to take the discussion on a tangent, but it is information if someone values it.
Last edited:
We has some sort of pongal dish last night too ... a dal/rice mix. There are only slight regional variations it seems.
Sadly here in the Australia and the southern hemisphere, we are saying goodbye to Surya. He must leave us so that He can give you lot in the Northern Hemisphere more light. I have legit wondered if maybe we should be celebrating our holidays in reverse but when I have brought it up it has been dismissed because it is simply easier to celebrate when India celebrates.
Viraja
Jaya Jagannatha!
Yes, we have many festivals on these cold winter months - like Karthigai, Hanuman Jayanthi, Vaikunta Ekadasi, Pongal, Shiva Ratri (in Feb). Would be nice indeed had they been in Summer months...