Pongal, one of the most important festivals in the calendar of Tamil community, was celebrated by Auckland Tamil Association on Saturday, January 30 at Mt Eden War Memorial, Auckland.
The annual show saw two events merged- one starting in early noon where community members, especially women and children participated in cooking, language and decoration activities and the second event in the evening saw the culmination of cultural shows and official ceremony.
The first part of the event saw men and women participating in the cooking competition where participants use only grains and vegetables such as different types of lentils, rice, spices to make a traditional festive dish from back home.
“The idea behind hosting the cooking competition is to get the community into the core of the Pongal festival- the way it is observed and celebrated back at their homes.
“As a tradition, women in the house cook different dishes from grains that are harvested in this month (Tamil month Tai, or Makar Sankranti in different parts of India) and the same is distributed amongst neighbours, friends and community gatherings,” Vai Ravindran president of Auckland Tamil Association told The Indian Weekender.
The day activity also included language sessions and rangoli competition for the children and youth who create different forms of rangoli on the ground-based on the festive theme.
“This year, since we combined the two events in a single day- the participants got to make the rangoli at the centre of the hall, where the red carpet is placed for the guests.
“The participants made some really amazing rangoli designs that were applauded by one and all in the event hall,” Vai Ravindran said.
The afternoon event concluded with the name the best snack and rangoli in the hall and was followed by the official ceremony in the evening.
Present at the official ceremony were Hon Consul of India, Bhav Dhillon, Minister of Transport Michael Wood, MP Vanushi Walters, Jeet Suchdev from Bhartiya Samaj, Nilima Venkat from Shanti Niwas, Srinivasan from Hamilton Tamil Society, Sundarajan from Auckland Tamil Society and Ray Annamalai.
The evening event started with the traditional lamp lighting ceremony followed by speeches from the guests present at the event.
The guests lauded the work of Auckland Tamil Association who organised various events and activities around the year for all ages groups of people of the Tamil community living in Auckland.
“Auckland Tamil Association organises youth-related activities such as sessions on job hunting, CV making, family events like rangoli competition, cooking contest, family camping and picnic, Tamil language classes for the children, and much more,” a guest reiterated at the event.
An array of dance and live music performances were given by different groups, followed by a friendly debate or ‘Pattimandram’ on a fun topic to engage with the audience.
“We hosted a pattimandram on the topic ‘Do men feel happy staying at home or outside?’ which called for some really interesting comments and opinions from either side of the team and created lot of laughter amongst the audience.
“Ultimately, the moderators ruled that the side that argued ‘men who stay at home remain happy’ won the debate,” Vai Ravindran said.
The event concluded with cultural performances and traditional Tamil dinner for all the attendees at the end of the evening.
ISSUE
Leave a Comment