When the harvest is over, the people of Tamil Nadu express their gratitude to the gods, the earth and their cattle. For four days, they celebrate with abandon and worship with devotion. Pongal, the harvest festival in mid-January is a very important one in Tamil Nadu. Pongal festivities continue through the first four days of the Tamil month of Thai (mid-January to mid-February). The houses are cleaned, painted and decorated. People wear new clothes and the cattle are gaily caparisoned with beads, bells and flowers--their horns painted and capped with gleaming metals. TIME OF THE YEARPongal falls in mid-January, at the beginning if Thai, which is a month of hope and joy and is considered very auspicious for marriages As a Tamil saying goes, "When Thai is born, it paves the way for hope." The month prior to Thai is Margazhi, considered inauspicious as it symbolizes the death of the sun as it journeys to the winter solstice. It is, however, believed that if a young unmarried woman...