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Pongal (பொங்கல்), or Thai Pongal (தைப்பொங்கல்), is a Hindu harvest festival celebrated by Indian and Sri Lankan Tamils every year around mid-January (it follows the Tamil solar calendar).

There are officially four days of Pongal but most people only celebrate three or less (personally I only celebrate the second day and a little of the first day because Pongal is not easy to celebrate in urban areas/countries).

The Four Days:

Day 1: Bhogi Pongal (idk what exactly bhogi means I'm sorry)

Bhogi Pongal is about starting anew because it is the last day Marghali month according to the Tamil calendar. People celebrate by wearing new clothes, cleaning their houses, and discarding old possessions. And they discard their old things by gathering around a bonfire and burning everything 👍 (reason for choosing the pic of Sam and Dean standing by a bonfire).

Day 2: Surya Pongal (Surya = Sun)

Surya Pongal is the main day of the festival and the first day of the Thai month. This day is dedicated to the sun god (reason for choosing the pic of Cas looking at the sun). To celebrate this day we make the pongal dish in a decorated pot as seen in the second image. Traditionally, the pongal dish is prepared outdoors and as a group. So the pot is placed over a fire and milk is added in. Once it starts to boil, freshly harvested rice and cane sugar are added. Eventually the pot will start to overflow and when this happens everyone will shout "Pongalo Pongal" which translates to "may this rice boil over. In urban areas its typically just one or a few people making the dish in the kitchen on the stove. We also decorate our doorsteps with kolam (which is depicted in the third image)

Day 3: Mattu Pongal (Mattu = Cow)

Mattu Pongal is a day where we worship the cattle because they are sacred animals in the Hindu religion. The cattle are adorned with flower garlands (as seen in pictures 7 and 8) and their horns are painted. The cows basically get special treatment that day like being fed pongal and other natural sweet treats and are bathed.

Day 4: Kanum Pongal (Kanum = to visit)

this is gonna be a bit of a jumbled mess so bear with me.

Ok so I'm reimagining Sam and Dean as half-Gujarati, with their mom being Indian and Jain, and their dad being white. For background, you all can read more about the Jain diet here, but basically it's strict lacto-vegetarism (no animal products except milk) and no root vegetables such as potatoes and onion. A decent amount of Jains in the West do become vegan, but it's not a requirement. Before you start wondering, the food still tastes great and the cuisine evolved without the need of these ingredients.

Here, as Dean did grow up somewhat with his mother in his early years, he remembers and misses her. For this reason, he adheres strictly to the diet, learning to cook via blogs on the internet and cookbooks, doing his best to substitute ingredients. Sam, on the other hand, doesn't really care about all this as he doesn't remember his mother at all. So he does not follow the rules of eating, and has no issue eating whatever John puts in front of him. John does his best to accommodate Dean's eating (he understands as he also misses his wife), but he sometimes forgets, and when that happens Dean goes to bed hungry.

When Dean and Sam reconnect and travel on the road, Sam always makes sure to buy food that Dean can eat and Dean shares stories about his mother in return. Sam, the lore nerd, goes to the library to find out more about his heritage, especially the parts that Dean doesn't know or cannot remember, and in doing so he feels closer to his mother who he never really met.

i'm from Singapore but also these are probably popular in other areas of SEA

first icon: iced gem biscuits

i know these are british but they were just such a constant in my childhood i had to use them. tbh i don't even like them as much but they were just at every birthday party i went to LMAO. also they're multicoloured <3 🏳️‍🌈

second icon: kuehs

to be specific: rainbow kueh lapis (the rainbow one 🏳️‍🌈), ondeh ondeh (the green ball with coconut flakes), and tutu kueh (white one). i don't think there is a translation for the word kueh but they're essentially just bite-sized snacks/desserts. rainbow kueh is made of soft and chewy multicoloured layers stacked on one another. you can technically bite into one as a whole and eat it quick but most people would peel off each layer and eat each separately. ondeh ondeh are pandan infused rice flour dough rolled into a ball which is filled with a palm sugar filling and coated with coconut flakes. tutu kueh is a steamed rice flour cake filled with a coconut filling.

third icon: potato wheel crackers