Attukal Pongala

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Om Namo Narayanaya Attukal Pongala Festival Attukal Pongala is an extremely popular, essentially women's festival celebrated in ancient Bhagavathy temple (Mudippura) at Attukal in the Kaladi ward of the Thiruvananthapuram district. It is a ten-day-long event which commences from the Bharani day (Karthika star) of the Malayalam month of Makaram-Kumbham (February-March) . Ninth day is the biggest day of the festival when the famous Attukal Pongala Mahotsavam takes place. A large number of women of all castes and creed from Kerala and also from the state of Tamil Nadu make offerings for the Goddess by cooking pongala in the vicinity of the temple. The world famous Attukal Pongala festival of this year will happen on 22nd of this month.( ie tomorrow ) Millions of women will line the streets leading to the Attukal Bhagavathy temple here on Feb 22 and cook special rice offering for the deity during the

temple festival.The event takes place on the penultimate day of the 10-day long Pongala festival. The sweet offering, called pongal, made by women is a mixture of rice, sweet brown molasses , jaggery , nuts , raisins and coconut. The ritual of cooking starts early in the morning and by noon, Pongala would be ready. Then the Melsanthi (chief priest) arrives with Devi's sword and bless the ladies by sprinkling holy water and showering flowers. The 'blessed' Pongala is taken back to the house by the ladies. The temple is also called the Sabarimala for women. Nearly 1.5 million women offered pongala in 2006. In 2007, the Pongala was held on 3rd March and it has been reported that about 2.5 million devotees participated in it. The number of women offering Pongala is increasing each year, and is expected to be the largest event in world where the maximum number of women gather together on a single day. The temple's name was published in Guinness book of Records, for being the world's largest religious union of women . The Pongala offering is on the ninth day. The entire area of about 5 kilometre radius around temple with premises of houses of people of all caste, creed and religion, open fields, roads, commercial institutions, premises of Government offices etc. emerges as a consecrated ground for observing Pongala rituals for lakhs of women devotees assembling from different parts of Kerala and outside. The

ceremony is exclusively confined to women folk and the enormous crowd, which gathers in Thiruvananthapuram on this auspicious day is reminiscent of the Kumbhamela Festival of North India. Attukal Bhagavathy is believed to be an incarnation of Kannagi, the heroine of Tamil epic "Silappathikaram" written by Tamil poet Illango in 2nd century A.D. It is said that Kannagi, who by her wrath burned Madurai in retaliation against her husband's death, travelled to Kerala and rested at Attukal. Women there are believed to have cooked pongal to soothe Kannagi's rage.

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