Home > Activities > Pongal

Pongal

Celebrate Tamil Nadu's most popular festival

The 4-day long Pongal festival is among Tamil Nadu’s most significant. It offers thanks to Nature’s bounty for the harvests of rice, other cereals, sugar-cane, and turmeric! It is also a month for weddings – as harvests are often associated with months of fertility. Bull-races also used to be part of the Pongal new year festivities, and extreme bull-racing forms like Jallikattu or Eruthazhuvuthal, are tribal customs that can be traced back to the Indus Valley civilization.

Image credits: www.pongalfestival.org

Activities from the Destination

Places of interest to weave into your itinerary

Broadway Show: Fort St. George

Discover Chennai's own 18th Century 'broadway'
Chennai Sightseeing Circuit

Discover Chennai's historic landmarks
Cholamandal Artists Village

An idyllic contemporary artists' village
Dakshinchitra Art Museum

Glimpse the art & architecture of South India
Home cooking experience

Partake a homely cooking lesson & meal
Kalakshetra Dance Centre

Trace the tradition of India's oldest dance form, Bharatnatyam
Margazhi Music Festival

A festival of music, dance, painting, sculpture and architecture
Mylapore Folklore Trail

Listen to stories behind daily rituals

Related Activities

Immersive, thematic activities to explore destinations

Ambubachi Mela

Glimpse the Tantric traditions of a fertility festival

Guwahati
Theyyam

Watch an animistic festival in all its glory

Kannur
Kochi-Muziris Biennale

Delve into one of India's most definitive art festivals

Cochin
Ramnavami Ramlila

Experience Varanasi's Dussehra celebrations of dance-dramas

Varanasi
Pongal

Celebrate Tamil Nadu's most popular festival

Chennai
Rajasthan International Folk Festival (RIFF)

Witness folk music traditions from across the world

Jodhpur
Khajuraho Dance Festival

Experience traditional Indian dance performances

Khajuraho
Mahashivratri

Celebrate the creation of the cosmos

Varanasi