New Delhi/Chennai, Jan 15 (IANS) With happy shouts of "Pongal-o-Pongal" as the milk boiled over signifying prosperity and plenty, people in Tamil Nadu and other parts of the country celebrated the harvest festival of Pongal Monday with prayers to the sun god and feasting on traditional sweet rice pudding.

The festival, which literally means 'boiling over', is an occasion when farmers offer prayers for a good crop the next season.

For 23-year old Divya Vaidyanathan of Chennai, Pongal is always an occasion of joy. It is associated with cleaning and decorating the house, drawing of elaborate kolams or traditional designs of rice flour in front of homes, buying new clothes, offering puja early in the morning and exchanging Pongal greetings with relatives and friends.

"My mom cooked 'chakrapongal' (sweet rice pudding) in the morning and did puja," said Divya. "We offer whatever is grown in the field for puja. We also have friends and relatives visiting us throughout the day."

Most of youth go out for fun on this day. Divya's brother Mahesh, for instance, flew kites all through the day. He planned to catch the latest movie at a nearby theatre with his friends later in the evening.

Also known as Makara Sankaranthi, since it is celebrated in accordance with the lunar calendar when the sun enters Capricorn, Pongal heralds the onset of the sowing season.

While the first day of the festival, 'Bhogi' that was celebrated Sunday, is just a prelude of what is to come during the three-days of festivities, it's the second day when the actual celebrations begin.

Surya Pongal, celebrated Monday, is when the sun god is worshipped and then new rice cooked in pots with milk and jaggery till it boils over. Sugarcane stalks are bought to decorate homes and turmeric stalks tied round the vessel in which the pongal is to be cooked.

"The rice is either eaten both in a salty and sweet form, accordingly its called 'venpongal' (salty) or 'chakrapongal'," added Divya.

On Sunday 'Bhogi' was celebrated with people getting up early to bathe before collecting all the trash of the house and burning it. All useless things were disposed off and replaced with new ones and colourful kolams drawn in front of homes.

The three-kilometre stretch along the Marina Beach in Chennai was decorated with kolam and the shops were bustling with sugarcane, ginger, turmeric, bananas and colourfully painted earthen pots in which the Pongal is prepared.

Pongal, like most of its counterparts celebrated around the same time in other parts of the country like Bihu in the northeast or Lohri in the north, signifies the culmination of winter and the onset of spring.

The third day of the festival - called 'Kaanum' or 'Mattu Pongal' is dedicated to the bull and the cow that has traditionally helped farmers till the land.

"Pongal is a day of re-bonding with old friends and relatives," says Maanya, another resident of Chennai.