Bogi is the first day marking the beginning of the four-day celebration of Harvest in Tamil Nadu. Hindus worship the Rain God today. And to mark the beginning of the new year post-harvest and thank God for all that went well. People from other religion participates mostly in the rituals which actually can start a day or two earlier.
The day usually starts at 4 AM when the cold morning cold breeze is made warm with all the sorted out old unwanted waste that needs to be disposed of. This is really fun, as I still remember as a small school-going kid boys and girls used to get drums and have fun beating them around the fire. The boys used to be roaming the whole day playing with these drums.
The drums used to be on sale decored in colors and some of them used to be even weightless. In my home, this used to be the time we usually clean up some unwanted stuff.
Unfortunately, our anthropocentric lifestyle has led us to burn tyres that the whole essence of the festival contributed to carbon emissions not only with carbon dioxide but also with toxic fumes that the government has to stop the whole fun part of the festival. Needless to say, the climate is not that cold, and is already hot to burn the stub to keep ourselves warm. This is probably the last day of the winter solstice. The bonfire actually should have been fired using the logs of wood from old agricultural tools with a mark of respect that the new ones will serve them in the same way in the year to come.
Another important aspect of this day's celebration is people used to draw big rice flour and flower patterns in front of the house called kolam. This is to mark to welcome good luck inside the house. I also remember that Hindus used to have the habit of placing a ball of cow dung with a pumpkin flower on top of it. My mother tells me that in her times they used to place this cow dung and flowers daily in front of their home.
Many of our traditions are lost for people who wanted to celebrate in a big way showing off their status and grandiose for the scarcity of resources to carry out the customs and traditions of our lifestyle going missing due to urbanization that we foolishly resort to using scraps that only harm our environment. For example, the burning of tyres adds toxic fumes to the environment. We may not be able to burn bonfires unless we have waste that needs to be disposed of such as stubs or care for the environment. Then why not for a change we propose to give away old clothes to the needy and wood or such wastes for recycling, and only burn away the rest of those that cannot be reused or recycled for the festive fun!
