Pondicherry Heritage Festival 2025

The 11th edition of the Pondicherry Heritage Festival kicked off with a vibrant display of culture, history, and community spirit in Puducherry’s Tamil Quarter. The event, marked by the ‘Veedhi Vilayattu’ (Street Games), took place along a stretch between Easwaran Koil and Anna Salai, transforming the area into a lively playground. Children had the chance to experience and engage in traditional games from the past, while the community came together to celebrate their heritage. The festival brought the streets to life with traditional activities, food, and fun, successfully engaging more than 250 children and numerous residents.

Detailed Study of the Event

Event Overview

• The event was part of the Pondicherry Heritage Festival 2025, which celebrates the city’s culture and history.
• The festival is co-hosted by People for Pondicherry’s Heritage and PondyCAN, supported by various organizations.
• The festival’s main activity was “Veedhi Vilayattu,” a street fair focused on traditional games.

Location

• The event took place in the Tamil Quarter of Puducherry, between Easwaran Koil and Anna Salai, which was closed off to traffic for the event.

Traditional Games

• Pallanguzhi: A traditional game involving a board with small pits used to play with seeds or shells.
• Pambaram: A spinning top game popular in rural India.
• Dhayam: A board game similar to checkers or chess, played with pieces on a grid.
• Pacha Kuthirai: A traditional game that involves guessing or identifying different objects or shapes.

Participants

• Over 250 children participated in the traditional games, with many discovering joy in playing simple group and solo games.
• The children engaged in a variety of activities, including running around trying to burst water balloons (a version of uriyadi), sitting on verandahs playing board games, and even cooking up imaginary cuisines.

Cultural Elements

• The event also served as a platform for cultural education, with children receiving “mini passports” that contained illustrations of 18th-century Tamil houses, with detailed features like wooden-pillared verandahs and projecting porticos.

Volunteers

• Students from Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute volunteered to organize the games and activities.

Local Community Involvement

• Local residents prepared and distributed traditional snacks and buttermilk free of charge to visitors and participants.
• A sense of nostalgia filled the air as adults reminisced about the games from their own childhoods.

International Presence

• The event attracted visitors from different cultures, including a French couple whose child joined in the activities, highlighting the universal appeal of these traditional games.

Other Attractions

• A story-reading session with jungle characters caught the attention of a group of children.
• Some children engaged in imaginative play, like pretending to cook with miniature pots and pans.