Pongal, the harvest festival is a thanksgiving ceremony in which the farmers celebrate the event to thank the Sun and the farm animals

Pongal is a four-day harvest festival dedicated to the Sun God. To mark the festival, the Pongal sweet dish is prepared and is first offered to the Gods and Goddesses

The Pongal festival begins on January 15, which marks the last day of the Tamil month called 'Marghazi'. The first day of the festival is called Bhogi Pongal. The festival is observed over the span of four days

The first day of the festival is called the Bhogi festival, the second day is called Thai Pongal; the third day is called Mattu Pongal; the fourth day is called Kaanum Pongal

The word 'Pongal' in Tamil means 'to boil', it is also the name of a sweet dish made out of boiled rice, moong dal, milk and jaggery, which is prepared specially to mark the harvest festival

The festival celebrates the harvesting of crops including sugarcane, rice and turmeric and falls around the same time as Lohri and Makar Sankranti in mid-January each year