Appreciating Cultural Diversity
by Felix Lim
@ 24 Jan 2014
The Tamil harvest festival of Pongal is a festival that celebrates the abundance of the winter harvest and also the hope for a good crop in the coming year. It is not celebrated by many in Singapore, but still is by many Indian expatriates from the Tamil Nadu region in India. In 2007, some expatriates and migrant workers who went to the Catholic Church of Our Lady of Lourdes decided to make it an event in the church and celebrate with other members of their congregation. The traditions of boiling milk and sharing meals are meant to evoke gratefulness for what has been given and also to celebrate ahead of the year to come.
