Tamil community marks Pongal Day with cultural activities |15 January 2008

Pongal is a harvest festival celebrated with immense joy and enthusiasm in the state of Tamil Nadu and other south Indian states. Celebrated on January 14 every year, the festival is an equivalent of Thanksgiving whereby farmers express their gratitude to the Sun for a bountiful harvest.

According to a popular belief, Hindus feel celebrating the harvest festival will bring them prosperity, peace and joy.
To mark the occasion this year, the Tamil community in Seychelles staged a cultural evening which featured a performance of various dance rituals associated with the festival.

The highlight of the evening were talks by two esteemed figures from India whom the Seychelles Tamil Mandram had invited over for the occasion. They are film director V. Sekarand and Professor M. Abdul Kadar, who is the head of the Tamil Department at the Vaaniyampadi College.

The talks, which were delivered entirely in Tamil, centred principally on traditional family values.