The completed Pongal oven holds two pots: one to cook sweet rice, the other a savory rice, symbolic that we should be grateful for both the pleasant as well as unplesant experiences of life. We are to relish both dishes, thanking God for "all" experiences of the year.

Next, a ritual altar is constructed entirely out of harvest grains, leaves, fruits and flowers with the intricate cosmological diagrams drawn around it. Various ritual implements are laid out for the ceremony. Sacred powders, a five flame lamp, water, incense and fruit are arranged on earth hardened with cow dung.

Cows are also adorned with religious marking and treated special on this day. They are garlanded and brought into the ceremony, after which we get to feed them sweetened rice and the banana leaves upon which the food is served. Leaf plates have been in use for thousands of years.

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