New to Waterloo region, this woman says she's excited to celebrate Pongal with her new community

Syamala Subashini T Sivasankaran remembers celebrating Pongal in Chennai, India, "with great excitement.".

This year, that excitement remains even though it will be Sivasankaran's first time marking the new year in Canada.

As a new resident in Waterloo region, having moved to the area in the summer of 2022, she says she did have concerns about the celebration being different in Canada compared to India.

"I did have a thought: What if I don't see my community? How do I celebrate? I had all those questions, but I was lucky enough to find the community over here," she said in an interview with Craig Norris, host of CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition.

"I was so happy to know that every single festival is celebrated with the same energy, with the same excitement."

Pongal begins Saturday and ends on Tuesday. It is a Hindu harvest festival celebrated by the Tamil community.

Rajivi Nadaraja, the secretary of the Tamil Cultural Association of Waterloo region, says local events are a great chance for the community to participate in traditions taking part in India, where some family members may still live.

"But it's also to show our community and build that inclusive community that knows and understands what our culture is and what beautiful traditions and culture that we have," Nadaraja said.

January is Tamil Heritage Month

Pongal celebrations are also part of how the community marks Tamil Heritage Month, which Nadaraja says is a chance for all people in the region to learn about their culture.

"Our culture is beautiful and it's incredibly diverse. There's so many forms of art, music. So it's very nice for our children to understand that we're part of that heritage," Nadaraja said.

It's nice to be able to mark these events, too, Nadaraja said, because many Tamils were forced to leave their home countries due to civil unrest.

"There's lots of struggles coming to Canada, building a life here and trying to still have our culture and experiences, but then build a new life here for our children so that they can then contribute to the landscape of Canada," Nadaraja said.

Sivasankaran says the festival is food-focused and a chance to thank farmers for the food on their tables. Pongal is also the name of a rice and lentils, similar in texture to a porridge, which is served for meals but also given as an offering.

"It's a way of saying thank you to the farmer and the sun," she said.

"You need to be thankful every single stage of your life, every single meal that you get," Sivasankaran added and said that's a message she tries to instill in her children.

"It's not easy coming here. It has been challenging for me as a new immigrant coming all the way from India. I keep telling them if you don't get what you have eaten back home … try to be thankful of what you get here, because that's again being grown by a farmer, it doesn't come just like that on a tree," she said.

"It's someone's hard work."

LISTEN | How this new Canadian plans to celebrate Pongal for the first time in Waterloo region: