THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The capital city hosted the famed Attukal Pongala festival in full swing after a gap of two years. Tens of thousands of women who assembled on the Attukal Devi temple premises and numerous city streets cooked the pongala, the sweet porridge, to please the presiding deity of the temple.
Women from different parts of the state, and even other states, had reached the capital on the pongala eve. Several city roads were booked by devotees on the previous day by placing their hearths meant for cooking the porridge. The temple witnessed heavy rush on Tuesday morning. The rituals at the temple started with thantri Thekkedath Prameswaran Vasudevan Bhattathiri handing a lighted lamp to melsanthi P Kesavan Namboodiri. The melsanthi lit the hearth at the valiya thidappally, the temple kitchen. He then handed the lamp to his co-priest who lit the pandara aduppu, a large hearth set up on the temple courtyard.
The lighting of the pandara aduppu marks the beginning of the community pongala ritual. Devotees made loud chants and crackers were burst on the occasion. The devotees too lit their hearths simultaneously, immersing the city streets in smoke and devotion for the next few hours. The ritual ended with the pouring of blessed water on the cooked porridge around 2.30 pm.
The kuthiyottam ritual began at 7.45 pm on the temple premises. Around 743 boys participated in the ritual. They have been camping at the temple for the past seven days.
JAM-PACKED
The temple witnessed heavy rush on Tuesday morning. Tens of thousands of women devotees who assembled on the Attukal Devi temple premises and numerous city streets cooked the pongala, the sweet porridge, to please the presiding deity of the temple.