Today is the first day of the new year in the Hindu calender, and is therefore a huge holiday in India where HHI conducts much of our work, as well as around the world. The holiday is associated with the harvest, it is called by many names and is celebrated in a wide variety of ways. In the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the celebration is known as Pongal Festival, or as Farmer’s Festival. Here it’s a celebration of the prosperity associated with the harvest by thanking the rain, sun and the farm animals that have helped in the harvest.

In villages, new clothes are worn and people owning cows find this festival important. This celebration is similar to the American holiday of Thanksgiving, also a harvest festival and a time of giving thanks, but the Pongal party lasts three days. On the first day the celebration is for the farmers and their harvest. The second day is in honor of the cows, bulls and oxen who give milk, plow the fields and pull the carts, thus contributing greatly to the community’s welfare.

And on the last day everyone celebrates with visits to their neighbors and friends. During this time traditions include preparing sweets from the newly harvested rice, getting new saris or clothes, painting the horns of the cattle or oxen and socializing and general celebration. In other Hindu areas this time is known as Makara Sankranti and it identifies a period of enlightenment, peace, prosperity and happiness followed by a period of darkness, ignorance and viciousness with immense sorrow. The period is also considered an ideal time to satisfy “the goals of life”. The day preceding Makara Sankranti is called Bhogi and this is when people discard old and derelict things and concentrate on new things causing change or transformation. It is in spirit that HHI sends you new year wishes (in whatever fashion you celebrate it). We wish, aspire and act for the creation of greater peace, love, joy, health and goodness. And we give thanks for all that we have, and all that we are creating.