Festivals

After the wedding, we celebrated our 'Thalai Karthigai' and 'Thalai Pongal' in Chennai. For those of you who aren't familiar with the language...'Thalai' literally means 'head' and the first Karthigai (festival of lights) and first Pongal (harvest festival) after the wedding are considered to be important.
For Karthigai, my mom brought numerous lamps of all shapes and sizes and I lit them around the house. I got to wear my 9 yards wedding sari again while Nishanth stood around in casual-wear.
For Pongal, my mom's sister (substituting for my mom) brought a bunch of goodies including a new silk sari for me and veshti Nishanth. Among the ritualistic items were karumbu (sugarcane), manjal (turmeric), flowers, and all kinds of fruits and vegetables. Nishanth's grandmother guided me through the process of making charkarai pongal (sweet rice) and venn pongal (flavored white rice). We offered the rice dishes other fruits and vegetables to the Gods and then enjoyed eating every last bit :-)