KARAIKAL: Ahead of Sunday’s ‘Mango Tossing Day’ as part of the four-day Karaikal Mango Thiruvizha, around 30 tonnes of mangoes have arrived in the district. The mangoes are set to be tossed over the devotees during the event.
The festival, which celebrates the life of Saivite saint Karaikal Ammaiyar, began on Friday. Crowds in their thousands are expected to throng the streets during Sunday’s event, and fruit vendors have stocked up on mango supplies anticipating the surge in demand.
“Mango varieties such as Neela and Ottu, which are favoured most by the people, have arrived in tonnes for the festival. People are also buying other varieties like Bangalora, Banganapalli, Amrapalli and Himampasand. The traders are having the best sale season of the year,” said K Rajenthiran, a fruit distributor who has stocked five tonnes of mangoes.
Devotees have been purchasing large quantities of mangoes over the past few days to offer deities at home as well as temples and for the Sri Pikshadanamurthy deity procession on Sunday. The mangoes are being offered to the temples of Shri Kailasanathar Temple and Shri Karaikal Ammaiyar Temple.
Meanwhile, food safety department officials from Puducherry have been inspecting fruit stalls and wholesale shops in the town for the past few days, conducting ‘bucket water gravity tests’ and collecting samples from shops to learn if the mangoes have been artificially ripened. M Ravichandran, an official from Puducherry said, “We can learn about the results after the mango tossing event. So, we are advising traders not to resort to such practices.”