Pongol

Pongol

a Hindu festival in honor of the sun, which is celebrated annually on Jan. 9. The high-caste Brahmins look upon this as a lucky and propitious day, but the Sudras hold it as sacred, and visit one another with presents. They boil rice on this day with milk outside the house, in some place exposed to the sun's rays, and when that luminary withdraws they cry out "Pongol!" and repeat it four times. The rice thus boiled is regarded as very holy, and kept as long as possible. The day after the Pongol the cows and buffaloes are led out early into the country, having their heads adorned with crowns and cakes.