Is harvest-time in Vellore just like it is in England?

In some ways, yes, but in other ways, no!

One of the major crops in the Vellore area is sugar cane. Sugar is made from this. I expect you’ve often been caught behind a sugar beet lorry when you’ve been travelling in Cambridgeshire or Norfolk. In the Vellore area you get caught behind sugar cane lorries or bullock carts, all going off to the processing factory. On small farms the sugar cane is processed in the fields, making a dark form of sugar called jaggery. The sugar harvest is in January and February. This is also the time of the rice harvest – or paddy. The paddy needs very wet fields to grow properly. When it is ready to be picked, instead of having some kind of processor in the fields, it is usually hand picked. Many people then leave all the plant, leaves and all, on the road so that the passing cars and lorries will act like threshing machines, separating the grains of rice from all the stuff they don’t want (which will be given to the animals to eat). Sometimes the threshed rice will be left on the roadside to dry! The other main crop of the area is groundnuts. Much of the land is too bad to grow anything on, but it may be possible to grow some groundnuts. You can buy a lovely sweet in the shops, made of groundnuts and jaggery, but it is very bad for your teeth!

In January in Tamil Nadu ( the state where Vellore is situated), there is a special harvest festival called Pongal. Pongal takes place over three days. This festival is to give thanks for the harvest, particularly for the rice and the sugar. There is a special ceremony, when pots of rice and sugar are cooked and allowed to boil over. This sometimes happens in a field. This is to give thanks for the food, and to ask for a blessing for the next year. One day of Pongal is a special day for the animals, particularly those who work for a living. The cows, goats – even the dogs – are washed and then decorated, and given a day without any work to thank them for all they have done.

However, the land in South India can get very dry. The people depend on the monsoon rain from June until October. If the rains are too heavy, it can ruin the planting of the next season’s crops. However, if the rains do not come, everyone knows that next year’s crops will be ruined! The poor people do not have the money to afford expensive irrigation equipment, even if there were water available. If there have been no rains, then the cows and goats which wander everywhere cannot get any food to eat. Those who work on the land have no work if the crops are dying, and cannot buy cattle feed and medicines for their animals. So their animals get sick and sometimes die. Unhappily, there has not been much rain in Tamil Nadu for the last eight years.

Photographs from the Hindu celebrations at Pongal:

Ponai Dam Harvest Festival

For Christians in the north of the Diocese of Vellore the most important Harvest celebration is a three day festival which takes place at Ponai Dam in August or September. Thousands of Christians from all over the area come for three days of worship, speeches, performances and singing. There are several important hill temples in this area which also hold festivals, and the Christians find that Hindus also like to come to Ponai Dam as well.

Some churches like to use Harvest Festival as a time for fundraising for good causes and will hold Harvest Supper events - although these are usually biryani fundraisers, Biryani is a rich curry dish which is usually served on all special occasions.