The traditional ritual of breaking coconuts on the head of devotees, in fulfilment of a vow, took place at Sri Mahalakshmi Temple in Mettumahadanapuram on Friday.
As part of the preliminaries of this annual festival, held on the 19th day of Tamil month Aadi, holy water was brought in a procession from the Cauvery and special prayers were conducted on Thursday evening.
On Friday morning too, the hereditary priest of the temple, Periasamy, and seven others brought holy water from the Cauvery and conducted special prayers. Subsequently the priests came in a ceremonial procession around the devotees, who had taken a vow, and broke coconuts on their head.
The pieces of coconut were later distributed to the devotees at the temple as prasadam.
A total of 525 devotees who had gathered at the temple from places like Karur, Coimbatore, Salem, Chennai, Pollachi, Madurai and Dindigul kept the vow. Mettumahadanapuram panchayat president Vijayalakshmi, Krishnarayapuram Tahsildar Mookkan and a large number public witnessed the event.
A team of medical personnel, led by Dr Niraimathi of Primary Health Centre, Kallapalli, treated the devotees who sustained injuries. A police team, led by DSP Elango, looked after security arrangements.