கணுப்பிடி

Its been 3years since I came to Ames.. But never had an opportunity to keep கணுப்பிடி.. Finally, this year it happened happily... It was freezing outside at 7 am. Wanted to keep my கணுப்பிடி but the deck was completely covered with snow and ice.. Luckily the broken chair in my deck gave me some space..So put the kolam and waited for the sun to rise.. But it was way too cloudy..So no sunrise at all...But luckily there was no wind which helped  the vilakku not go off..

Just to write briefly about what I know  about a கணுப்பிடி actually is... From my childhood, the day after Pongal, early morning we keep this கணுப்பிடி in our terrace just before sunrises..  A hand full of chakra pongal and the rice made on  day of Pongal, for the next day.. The day after Pongal,just before sunrise, a surya kolam and chandra kolam is put on the floor and on it they place turmeric leaf. In a plate we make a pillayar is made of turmeric and decorate it with flowers. Later a deepam is lighted. Along with it sugar cane,betel leaves, half betel nuts, some akshathai and flowers are kept(Though nothing is available in this town only deepam was what left in my picture).. From the chakra pongal and white rice which was prepared on the Pongal day, we prepare 4 types ofsmall urundais(ball shaped) .
Chakra pongal urundai
Plain rice urundai
Rice mixed with turmeric urundais
Rice mixed with kumkum urundais.
Now each lady/girl of the family should pray for their brother's well being and good health and place one of each colored urundai one below the other on the turmeric leaf.. Once all the ladies in the family finish keeping the eldest lady of the family takes aarthi...

Lastly there is a small difference in keeping this கணுப்பிடி between the tamil Iyers and Iyengars.. I donno the exact reason why it is done like this.. But Iyers keep the கணுப்பிடி without taking bath and after keeping the கணுப்பிடி, they take an oil bath saying it is done so the kanuppidai leaves and only after taking bath the ladies can eat or drink .. Whereas Iyengars keep the கணுப்பிடி after taking bath..

This is what I know about கணுப்பிடி...