Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], January 15 : Pongal celebrations took over many parts of Chennai on Thursday. One highlight was the KK Nagar police taking time to participate in the festival with their families outside the station.
The personnel at the KK Nagar Police Station took a break from their duties to celebrate Pongal with their loved ones. They cooked the traditional Pongal dish in a cauldron.
St Matthias Catholic Church was also seen celebrating the Pongal festival by cooking and wishing each other on the day.
The premises of the St Matthias Catholic Church saw a vibrant celebration. The people shared in the cooking process, working together and exchanging wishes of peace and prosperity on the occasion.
Pongal was celebrated with traditional fervour across Tamil Nadu. In Thoothukudi, urban areas came alive early in the morning as residents decorated their homes with colourful kolams. As part of the ritual, Pongal, the traditional sweet rice dish, was prepared in new clay pots.
In Madurai, the famed Jallikattu event was held at Avaniyapuram, drawing large crowds on the occasion of the harvest festival. The traditional bull-taming sport remained a key cultural highlight of Pongal, with at least 960 bull-tamers allowed to participate in the event.
At Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in Coimbatore, Pongal was celebrated with enthusiasm. "It is a traditional festival that has been celebrated for the past 60 years at the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University. This year, we are also celebrating in the same form of splendour to honour the natural resources, especially the cow, as well as the support for all our research activities and the farm workers... It is a tradition to reciprocate our sincere thanks to the cow that helped us with cultivation," said Vice-Chancellor in-charge Dr K Subrahmaniyan.