Tallahassee Pongal Celebration
Tallahassee Tamil Sangam
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Tallahassee, FL 32301
Dr Mano and Mrs Priya arranged a Pongal Celebration for Tamil loving people of Tallahassee on Saturday, January 17, 2009. The celebration began with about 60 people gathering together for an evening of drawing of kolam, prayer, play for kids, preparation of sweet pongal and having a communal dinner.
At first, nine separate teams of ladies and children participated in a kolam drawing event using colored kolam powder on black sheets. Due to the inclemental weather (42 deg F at 6 PM) and winter time (sunset was around 6:05 PM) the kolam drawing had to be held indoors. The friendly competition captivated the whole crowd with teams working on their kolam for about an hour. Three non-partisan judges evaluated the teams work and prizes were given to first (1 team) and second places (3 teams).
The Pongal celebration proper started with reciting of a prayer "Pallum TheliThenum" by VTS and TS. Then children aged 4-11 participated in musical chair competition. Older children participated in role playing game. Following the games, prizes were awarded both for kolam competition and game participants.The sweet pongal was made ready by Mrs Karpagam and it was time for eating a communal meal. In all everyone had a wonderful pongal evening.
