Markazhi thingal in a Tamil village

[podalangai]

Several hubbers - particularly those born abroad and those whose families have been settled in cities for a few generations - may never have personally experienced how Margazhi Thingal is observed in rural Tamil Nadu. For their benefit and also because I feel quite homesick at this time of the year, I thought I'd describe how it is observed in the village where my parents live.

Each "ur" within the panchayat village has its own set of little shrines. The biggest temple, though, is a Sivan kovil, and this is the centre of Margazhi celebrations. Each morning, there is a procession around the village, headed by an elder who walks in front with the temple flag, and followed by people with drums and other traditional instruments, with the children of the village making up the rear. The procession starts at 4 a.m., and visits every house in the village. The villagers have by then washed the courtyards and streets and drawn very elaborate kolams outside their houses - a lot of them wake up even earlier because they'll be making the pilgramage to Sabari malai. The village isn't very big, but the procession takes at least two hours, because everyone insists that there must be a prayer in their house, and then on feeding everybody who's attended the prayer.

At around 6 or 6.15 a.m., the procession reaches the temple. The archakars have been preparing for the morning pujai in the meantime, and when the procession arrives the pujai starts. The kovil also has a small sannidhi to Narayana, so they recite both Thiruppavai and Thiruvembavai. Once the main pujai is finished, the people of the village sing bajanais.

After the bajanais, every child presents stands up in turn and recites the verse of thiruppavai or thiruvembavai for that day (they can choose to do either or both). Some of them make mistakes, obviously, but when they do so they are gently corrected by the people present - nobody gets angry with them for getting it wrong. It is quite charming - and also moving - to hear small children, four or five years old, trying to recite the verses with their mazhalaichol. Houses take turns to make the prasadam for the day's prayers - if a household is having difficult times financially, others will contribute ingredients so that everybody gets the "punyam" of preparing prasadam.

On the night of December 31, there is a huge prayer at a tiny Amman shrine (originally a sacred stone) under a tree in one of the farms of the village. Preparations begin around a week in advance, with the shrine receiving a fresh coat of chunnambu, and the entire surroundings being much spruced up.

Towards Pongal, pilgrims leave for Sabari malai. There's always a fairly large group, with around a hundred or so of the men of the village making the pilgrimage. Children also go - the youngest this year is ten. Margazhi has ended by the time they come back, but in the meantime preparations have begun for the pilgramage to Pazhani for Thai poosam. The pilgrims - there are usually fifty or sixty of them - walk all the way to Pazhani from the village. They spend the nights in Sivan kovils along the way. Four or five cooks travel with them, and they hire a truck which drives behind them carrying all the ingredients they need. People who fall sick on the way or are too old or tired also travel in the truck. When they return, the village returns to its normal routine.

Perhaps others could share their memories of how the month is celebrated in their home areas in Tamil Nadu or elsewhere in the "thamizh kurum nal ulagam." I would also very much like to hear reminiscences from older hubbers about how things were in their younger days.

[crazy]

wow anna
"margazhi thingal allava
madhi konjum naal allava
idhu kannan varum pozhuthallava "

hm..let me think ..
at the time i lived with my grandparents in India, we(everybody except myself) used to wake earlier in the morning, coz they used to put color kolam(and that takes more time that usual kolam) and every night (sometimes in the evening) my aunt and my grandma used go through those bundles of kolam books to decide which kolam to put the next day
in margazhi I used to wake up with those special margazhi songs(coz my grandpa used to have them on high volume) and been forced my grandpa to kannathil pottuing (kannathil podurathu) almost every morning entering the living room from my bed room , coz he used to watch those spec morning prayers, programs telecasting thirupathy kovil (other vishnu kovils as well)

well ...adhukku appuram perusa solla onnum illai
i had a contribution to this kolam pottuing :feeling_proud: every morning, b4 leaving for school i used to walk through our street and used to report "yaar enna kolam pottuing" to my aunt and grandma this was very important coz One MUST NOT put the same kolam (which someone else in ur street have already made/put )for the entire margazhi

ithai thavira enkitta margazhi patthi solla vera ondum illai
oh yeah...used to go to that particular hanuman (or anjaneyar) temple (cant remember the name )

I also feel homesick I miss trichy and my home

[pavalamani pragasam]

Being born & bred in town though missed the native- maN maNakkum- charm of Podalangai's childhood, Margazi had its own speciality for me as a kid. On the tar road at our doorsteps a beautiful white pinnal kOlam was made my mother( rangoli had not become popular then) and we kids make a small ball of cow dung & place them at apt positions on the kOlam & plant a manjaL poosaNipoo on them. A woman who is a keerai/thayir vendor throws the flowers in the verandah in the small hours according to the instructions. After 10am we take the cow dung balls & semi withered flowers to the mottai maadi where we flatten the balls, tear each flower into 2 & paste them on either side of the flat sides & let it dry up. These varattis collected over the whole month are used in the fire for the pongal pot on Thai 1st. during those days a few people kept cows in their houses. There was one opposite our grandma's house. We get dung from there in a tin can. Then lifestyles changing fast no more cow dung available, no more poosaNipoo vendors & the custom died once & for all.

After marriage touring all over Tamil Nadu there were periods of flat occupation where kOlam is unheard of!!! But once on the eve of Margazi 1st we friends in the flats of our aprtment gathered & planned to put kOlam in front of the block in the early morning before sunrise. One of the friends' husband had told her he had no objection to her going down to the road at that early hour if only she removed her golden thalikodi & kept it safely inside the house. So notoriously frequent were snainsnatching incidents! But to our great disappointment it rained cats & dogs from very early in the morning utterly spoiling our plan! A very rare thing to happen.

After many years again this year it rained continuously for 3/4 days continuously in the 1st week of Margazi. Last year I fondly put kolams & beautifully decorated with colour powders everyday in Margazi. Took snaps each day & sent them to my kids even if it was a tiny 3-pulli kolam colourfully decked. But this year our street is paved with concrete blocks which have designs protruding making it very difficult even for white kOlams to look attractive.

Near my mil's house there is a small Pillaiyaar koil where Pongal is sponsored by one house everyday in turn. A particular amount is pain & the poosari takes all the responsibility of preparing pongal in front of the deity & making the pooja. The family goes there at the time of the pooja & all other devotees share the prasadham.

Basically over the years my religiosity has changed from from one of performing rituals & temples to a way of living with generosity. But my attraction for the 'colourful religiosity' still continues!

[Shakthiprabha.]

We were a gang of few friends, who used to go to our favourite ganesha temple for sanskrit classes.

Margazhi used to be too special and religiously celebrated in this temple.

There used to be competition amidst us friends as to who gets up early and gets dressed fast to join the bhajan gang.

I used to get up at 3.30 to 4 am, put beautiful rangoli (my mom puts wonderful rangolis) in our court yard, plant yellow poosanip poo.

By 4.30 I would be ready to knock my friend's house. Much to my annoyance she would be ready and fresh too :P

We would have small lil thrills in seeing whose poosani poo stays fresh for long time.

I would be the first one to call upon my friends (and we used to address ourselves as aaNdaaL and gang).

By then the bhajan group would have assembled in ganesha temple.

So many elders and few kids like us would be there. When the bhajan procession starts at the wee hours of darkness, with so much sancitity and fresh mind / body / thoughts, definitely it used to send me pleasant shivers down the spine.

I WOULD BE ECSTATIC to say the least.

Bhajan procession would pass thro all tiny streets in and around the temple, singing atleast 10 to 15 bhajans, starting everyday with ganesha bhajan and ending in ganesha bhajan again.

Inbetween Krishna bhajans would be sung.

I would be the lead singer, for children group as supposedly I used to sing well . We would take turns and every child (girls/boys) would get to play manjira for one single song.

When we reach the temple, poojaari thatha would be waiting along with swarms of ppl assembled at the entrance of our temple.

By then it would be 6 to 6.30 am.

Everyday one house would contribute to the prasadam (which is mostly yummmmmmmiest venpongal , one or two days we may have kesari and chakkarai pongal too)

We would all be too eager to help poojari thatha, hence would collect arasai leaves near our temple. clean it and keep it ready to serve prasadams.

After pooja takes place, Some of us (3 to 5 of us) would sing song then its time for prasadam.

Mostly one of us (kids /girls /boys) would be there to distribute the leaves. One of the elders would serve prasadams. I remember there were days when we kids used to serve prasadams too.

I also remember , me waiting for the crowd to disperse, I would stand quietly for few mins before ganesha, WONDERING 'what is god' (to which Ive not found a very convincing answer until now :P ) . Speak a word or few to poojari thatha, he would enquire about my studies etc.

My friends would wait for me till then. Then we all would walk home, eating prasadams on the way. (lil morsel would be kept for amma too :P ). It would be 7.00 am by then.

Then its............ ON UR MARK, GET SET, RUNNNN TO CATCH PTC BUS to go to school

[Arthi]

I just love this maargazhi maadham
I enjoyed to the core in the month of maargazhi when I was in my village.

In the month of margazhi a old man comes to our village at abt 3:00 am he sings songs at everyone doorstep and sings with his conch also

actaully we call him as saangu OOdhi..every year he comes in the month of maargazhi.

On pongal, all village people have to present him with sugarcane, rice, banana

My mom put wonderful rangoli & also pinnal kOlam.every night my mom rehearsal a rangoli which she is going to draw the next morning and I make sure that in our street no one is planning to put the same rangoli ( bcoz it's a prestige issue & either we or anyone else in our street don't want to be portrayed as a copy cat )

After that, making my MOM's rangoli more colourful is my sistr's & my responsilility. we color the rangoli & we pluck yellow paranki poo and sangupoo from our garden & plant those flowers in the center of the rangoli with the help of cow dung

Apart from rangoli, yes THIRUPPAVAI plays a very important role and alos miLagu Pongal

When I was in village, we were not having TV... We used to listen to the meaning of THIRUPPAVAI & THIRUVENPAVAI song daily through Trichy radio.

there is one pErumal kovil(varadha raaja pEruma) in our village. It is my maternal uncle's responsibility to prepare miLagu pongal in the month of Maargazhi. I help my uncle in collecting dry sticks for a campfire.

Early morning the bhattar comes to the temple. Early morning we want to take part in the pooja so we take bath in cold water After bath my teeth shivers like esp I & my mom & run to the temple, bcoz don't want to miss the karpOra aarti & thErtham & sadari
to get these 3 things, we have to take bath

after pooja, we all stand in a line for pongal... my uncle so kanjoos, gives us very little obviously it is a prasadham & he has to give prasadham to the entire crowd

we just wait for this taste pongal with palaa leaves on hand. we join 2 or 3 palaa leaves witht he help of groom stick.

every day we enjoy like this

We celebrate Pongal,maatuu pongal in a very grand manner.

We were having cows, on maatu pongal, we used color our cows horn and decorate the cowhouse

after that we shifted to SRIRANGAM...

Wow I used to enjoy my MAARGAZHI in srirangam also...

But i enjoyed the most when i was in village

aandaL thiruvadigalE charanam