Shiv ji sent Nandi down with a message for the world: bathe in oil every day, eat once a month.
Nandi came and said it the other way round — eat every day, bathe in oil once a month. Everybody was delighted.
When Shiv ji heard what had been said, he told Nandi: if they are going to eat every day, then you had better go down and help them grow it. So the ox stays in the field, and on the second day of Pongal it is the ox that is washed, its horns painted, and fed first — Mattu Pongal.
Four days: one for what is thrown out, one for the sun, one for the cattle, and one for going out to see people.
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