Pongal 2027 dates, the four days and Pongal in the Netherlands

What is Pongal?

Tamils celebrate Pongal as a Hindu harvest festival. It is named after the dish at its heart: new rice boiled in milk with jaggery until the pot foams and overflows. The word itself means "boiling over", and the overflowing pot stands for plenty in the year ahead.

The festival is dedicated to Surya, the sun god, and marks the start of the sun's northward journey (Uttarayana). The main day, Thai Pongal, is the first day of Thai, the tenth month of the Tamil solar calendar, and it usually falls on 14 or 15 January. Across India the same moment is kept under other names, such as Makar Sankranti.

Pongal is the harvest festival at the start of Thai. The traditional Tamil New Year, Puthandu, is the first day of Chittirai, around 14 April, and is a public holiday in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.

The four days of Pongal

Bhogi opens the festival. Families clean and decorate the house and burn old belongings on a bonfire, making a fresh start before the harvest thanks.

Thai Pongal is the main day. In a new earthenware pot set out in the sun, rice is boiled with milk and jaggery; the first serving is offered to Surya and the family eats afterwards.

Mattu Pongal is for the cattle. The cows and bulls that help plough the fields are washed, garlanded and thanked in prayer.

Kaanum Pongal closes the festival: a day to relax, go on picnics and visit relatives and friends.

When is Pongal in 2027?

In the Netherlands Pongal runs from Wednesday 13 to Saturday 16 January 2027: Bhogi on Wednesday 13, Thai Pongal on Thursday 14, Mattu Pongal on Friday 15 and Kaanum Pongal on Saturday 16 January.

In India and Sri Lanka the festival comes a day later. The Indian calendar, calculated for New Delhi, has Bhogi on Thursday 14, Thai Pongal on Friday 15, Mattu Pongal on Saturday 16 and Kaanum Pongal on Sunday 17 January. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka lists Friday 15 January as the public holiday for Tamil Thai Pongal Day, and Indian holiday calendars put Pongal in Tamil Nadu on the same Friday.

The date follows the moment the sun enters the sign Makara. In India that happens at 21:14 on 14 January 2027 and Thai Pongal falls on 15 January; in Dutch time that is 16:44 the same day, and the Dutch calendar puts Thai Pongal on 14 January. In January 2026 the Den Helder temple's calendar marked Thai Pongal on 14 January, the same day as the Amsterdam calendar.

So a Dutch celebration can be held on either date, or on a weekend close to them. Check which date the organiser uses.

Who celebrates Pongal?

Pongal is kept first of all by Tamils in Tamil Nadu, where it is a regional holiday, and in Puducherry. Tamils of different religions keep it.

Sri Lankan Tamils centre it on Thai Pongal day and also cook pukkai, a dish of red rice, mung beans and milk. In Sri Lanka, Pongal is a public holiday.

Tamil communities abroad keep it too, from Malaysia and Singapore to the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

Pongal in the Netherlands

The Tamil community in the Netherlands includes Sri Lankan Tamils: a group of them founded the Tamil Hindu temple in Den Helder in 1991. The Stichting Netherlands Tamil Sangam, based in The Hague, brings Tamils together around their culture and heritage. Its Tamil Cultural Center teaches Bharatanatyam, Tamil, silambam and traditional instruments, and its website has pages for Amsterdam, Amstelveen, Eindhoven, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Zaandam.

No public Pongal celebration in the Netherlands is listed for January 2027 yet. Neither the Tamil Sangam nor the Den Helder temple shows one at the moment. The temple publishes a calendar for each month: its January 2026 calendar marked Thai Pongal on 14 January, and its January 2027 calendar will show which day it keeps. Pongal is also cooked and eaten at home, so not every celebration is public.

Events that organisers list will appear on this page.

What to expect

At home, Pongal starts early with a kolam, a pattern of rice flour drawn in front of the house. New clothes are worn. People tie a turmeric plant or flowers round the pot and set it in the sun beside stalks of sugarcane, and when the milk boils over everyone calls out "Pongalo Pongal". Temples cook the sweet pongal as an offering and hand it out, and some run free kitchens.

The Munich Tamil Sangam's Pongal day on Saturday 25 January 2025 ran from 10:00 to 19:00, with music, dance such as Bharatanatyam, a kolam competition, poetry and games. Food was not included in the ticket and cost €10 (vegetarian) or €12 (non-vegetarian) per person. A Dutch event may look different, so read the organiser's own listing.

How to join a Pongal celebration

There is no Dutch event to book yet. To find one, follow the organisers named above: the Netherlands Tamil Sangam (contact details are on its website; Facebook groups using its name may be fake, so go through the site) and the Tamil temple in Den Helder, whose contact page is on hindutemple.nl.

Ask the organiser about entry, food and what to wear, because prices and rules differ per event. The Munich event, for example, welcomed everyone to take part. Weekend dates are close at hand in 2027: by the Dutch dates, Saturday 16 January is Kaanum Pongal and Sunday 17 January is the day after.