March 19, 2024

Pongal Festival Activities for Kids at the Indian Heritage Centre

Pongal Day activities for kids

Here I am with some Pongal festival activities for kids. We were in Little India and could join open house workshops and activities organised by the Indian Heritage Centre (IHC). The event was a good opportunity for everyone to improve cultural awareness while having hands-on experience with some activities that are related to Indian culture and Pongal Festival. All the activities were family-friendly where we could help or try together with my son. The Indian Heritage Centre was crowded and many families participated in these Pongal day activities with their kids.

Pongal Day activities for kids

This Sunday, the second day of the Pongal Festival, we were in Little India and we planned to visit Indian Heritage Centre to participate in these activities and to gain more ideas about Pongal Festival. My son learns the Tamil language in school and he attends a Tamil tuition class for extra support. This is a good opportunity for us to visit Little India every weekend and catch up with interesting programmes and activities while enjoying the main attractions of Little India.

What is Pongal Festival?

The Tamil community celebrates the Pongal festival as a harvest festival. The main aim of this celebration is to thank the sun, mother nature, and farm animals who helped achieve a good harvest. This celebration spreads over four days: Bhogi Pongal, Surya Pongal, Maatu Pongal, and Kaanum Pongal. This year Pongal festival is from Saturday, 14 January to Tuesday, 17 January.

Pongal Day activities for kids
Display with Cow, chicken, and Milking utensils (Stainless steel milk cans)

Pongal Festival Activities

Below are the Pongal Festival activities we enjoyed and engaged at the Indian Heritage Centre, Singapore. In a few months ago, we participated in Deepavali Cultural Craft Activities with the kid at the Indian Heritage Centre. Reminding of those activities, here are the Pongal Festival activities that we could join with our son.

Learn about Pongal through different displays

First, we learned about the Pongal Festival through different displays. While there were murals behind, there were actual displays such as clay pots and oil lamps that are used by the Indian community to celebrate this festival.

Milking Utensils
Milking Utensils
Pongal Day activities for kids
Learn how to cook Sweet Pongal, what it is and food displays
Pongal Day activities for kids
Pongal festival includes appreciation for the Sun God
pray items hindu
Appreciation to the ‘Sun God’

Pottery Demo

This was an interesting experience for us. Kid could see how pottery is made through this demo session. The craftsman Mr.Hemachandran M demonstrated how Pongal Pots are made.

Pongal Day Making miniature Pongal pots
Making miniature Pongal pots

Colouring activities

There was a corner dedicated for children for activities such as colouring. There were colouring sheets and worksheets with pencils and colour where children could engage in colouring and similar activities.

Pongal Day activities for kids

Through these colouring activities, children could learn the basics about Pongal Festival.

Pongal Day activities for kids
My son with his half-done Pongal Festival activity sheet.

As our child was supposed to attend his Tamil language class, he had to hurry when he was half done with the colouring. However, after the class, we again came back to the Indian Heritage Centre to participate in other activities.

Making a Pongal Pot Pencil topper

The next activity is to make a Pongal pot pencil topper. This workshop area was crowded with many families and even adults. Everyone enjoyed colouring Pongal Pots that were given free of charge. All the colour and paint brushes were provided and both kids and adults enjoyed colouring their Pongal pots to make a pencil topper.

Pongal Day activities for kids
Colouring a Pongal Pot Pencil topper

DIY Cattle Magnet

In this activity, children could create a decorative Cattle Magnet using the items given by the IHC. We engaged in this activity after my son’s class and it was the afternoon session. We were lucky that my son was the last participant who could engage in this activity as the necessary items were all finished. 🙂

Pongal Day activities for kids
Making a cattle magnet

Cook Sweet Pongal

The next display was a Pongal pot with the necessary ingredients for cooking sweet Pongal. The visitors could have an idea of how to cook Sweet Pongal and its ingredients. This display was good as a photo opportunity too.

Pongal Day activities for kids

Festive House Photo Frame

This was a fun and memorable activity for families. The hosts took a photo of the participant. It could take with family and friends too though I did not join with my son. After a few minutes, they gave us the printed photo. There were stickers and photo frames where participants could use to decorate their photo frames. My son used a few stickers to decorate his photo frame.

Pongal Day activities for kids
Pongal-Day-activities-for-kids-photo-frame

Decorating a photo frame was one of the best Pongal Festival activities for kids.

Henna Tattoo

The next activity was to apply a henna tattoo. My son liked to have a spider web on his hand and the artist was clever and creative on this henna tattoo.

Henna for kids
Spider web henna tattoo

Pongal activities for kids
Happy kid with his DIY crafts and a henna tattoo on his hand 🙂

Dancing and Music performance

There were dancing and cultural performance outside the IHC. We could enjoy this show too although I couldn’t take a clear photo as it was crowded.

Finally,

The Indian Food

We never forgot to taste delicious Indian food while we were in Little India.

We had food at Madura’s Vilas which is a vegetarian food restaurant located on Buffalo Street. We usually visit this restaurant when we are in Little India. On this day we had Dosa, Vadai, and tea for our meal together with different chutneys and curries. As it was Pongal day, we also received sweet pongal.

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IMG_7215
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Indian-food-Little-India

It was a great day in Little India and we could learn more about the Pongal festival while having family bonding time together.

These activities were provided by the Indian Heritage Centre (IHC) for free as part of their Pongal Festival Celebrations.

Do you like to visit such cultural workshops and shows? Do you think these Pongal Festival activities for kids are exciting and educational? Please share your thoughts below as a comment.

Check these Racial Harmony Day activities too.

Below are other posts that share different cultural activities. Please check if you have missed those.

Amila Gamage Wickramarachchi

Amila Gamage Wickramarachchi is the founder of this blog. She shares her parenting and lifestyle experiences of raising a child in Singapore.

View all posts by Amila Gamage Wickramarachchi →

22 thoughts on “Pongal Festival Activities for Kids at the Indian Heritage Centre

  1. Hi What a fun looking festival, and the food looks delicious. Looked like a wonderful day with lots of activities too.
    thanks for sharing with us
    Happy T Kathy

  2. This was such an informative post Amila. I hadn’t heard of pongol, so all the events at this festival were good for me too seeing I needed to learn about it. And your food looks so yummy. Your son looks like he is having lots of fun also. Thanks for sharing, and I hope you are having a wonderful T day. hugs-Erika

  3. I must admit to skimming through most of your post .. but i hope to come back later and read it more thoroughly.. Lovely pictures and it looks like your son had a fabulous time! Happy T day! Hugs! deb

  4. What a great festival. I enjoyed reading about and seeing how many fun activities your son was able to partake in, Amila. He even got to keep the items he made, which made it even more fun for him, I’m sure. I was delighted to read about the culture, too,

    I think Indian food is wonderful because there are so many wonderful vegetarian items. Your food and drinks looked wonderful. The frothy tea looked like something I would love to try. Thanks for taking us to the Pongal Festival, sharing the various activities, and ending with tea a curries for T this Tuesday.

  5. This is simply the best festival. I love all the art and colors. The food looks amazing too. Your son is such a cutie and seems to be quite talented too. Thank you for sharing the festival and all the great information. Have a lovely day.

  6. When my daughter was little, she often joined in activities like these. I think it is a good way to let them know about different cultures. She most enjoyed activities that took place in nature and where she learned how to protect our planet.

  7. What an amazing festival, I enjoyed finding out about it 😊. It looks like it was really educational too, such fun for your son. I’d love to try the food too – delicious! Happy T Day wishes! Hugs Jo x

  8. I am a little late making it around this week, but I wanted to stop by and let you know that I loved seeing the Pongal festival! Such a wonderful aspect of your culture. The food looks delicious and such fun learning and activities for your son. I am very interested in Indian culture as I love the art, textiles and decor. Loving the Henna spider. I have always wanted a Henna tattoo. Maybe someday…
    Happy Belated Tea Day,
    Kate

  9. Henna art is admired much in Singapore among all communities. I hope you will have a chance for having a henna tattoo one day!

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