In American literature, the term realism encompasses the period of time from the Civil War to the turn of the century during which William Dean Howells, Rebecca Harding Davis, Henry James, Mark Twain, and others wrote fiction devoted to accurate representation and an exploration of American lives in various contexts.
Pongal is the first day of Uttarayana and coincides with the beginning of the Tamil month of Thai. Pongal is one of the most popular harvest festivals of southern India, mainly Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
For other uses, see Matsuri (disambiguation). Japanese festivals are traditional festive occasions. Some festivals have their roots in Chinese festivals centuries ago, but have undergone great changes as they mixed with local customs. Some are so different that they do not even remotely resemble the original festival despite sharing the same name and date.