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Next: about 16 Jan 2027

Mattu Pongal

The third day of Pongal in Tamil Nadu, given to the cattle: bathed, horns painted, garlanded and fed the first of the new rice.

A tile drawn for this day, not a photograph.

Cattle at Mattu Pongal

Pongal is the Tamil harvest festival of the month of Thai, and its third day belongs to the cattle that ploughed the fields and carried the crop. On Mattu Pongal (maadu means cattle) the animals are bathed in the village tank, their horns are scraped, painted and capped with brass, and they are dressed with garlands, bells and beads. Families cook sweet pongal from the new rice and jaggery, offer it, and feed some of it to the cows and bullocks. In the evening the cattle are often led in procession through the village. Many homes also honour the cow with an aarti and a mark of kumkum on the forehead.

The breeds

KangayamThe Kongu draught breed that leads many Mattu Pongal processions.UmblacheryThe Thanjavur delta breed of the rice fields, with its marked face.

Also part of it, and being written: Pulikulam (The small, quick bulls of the Madurai country.).

About this page

Written by the EveryCow desk with AI assistance. Background: "Mattu Pongal" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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