VELLORE:Mayana Kollai, a five-day festival (that began on Maha Shivarathiri) was celebrated by several communities with several hundred chickens and goats being sacrificed to mark the occasion in city temples.
People gathered in the cemetery located in the Palar riverbed to conduct rituals. “We gather in the cemetery to give our ‘Nerthikadan’ (thanksgiving) on the auspicious day to our ancestors. We paint our body in different colors and dress like Kali to pay our tribute,” said A Pichaimuthu, of Makkan.
An oversized Kali statue was taken in procession to the cemetery. People were dressed as various avatars with their offerings of chickens and goats as sacrifice to the gods, which they claimed was for expiation of their sins. The people who dressed like Kali hung dried cow intestines over their bodies.
In one instance, a goat was dragged to the ground and its throat was slit and left to bleed, while devotees, mostly women dragged their offering of chicken and goats toward the bleeding goat to take some of its blood.
“We believe that hurdles in our lives, will be overcome if we take a vow of sacrificing goats and chicken to the gods and fulfil our vow on this auspicious day,” said Venkatesan who was dressed as‘Kali’ in Angalaamman. temple. Devotees from Viruthamput, Old Town, Makkan, Kalinjur, and Kaspa were predominant in carrying out the sacrifices.