KARAIKAL: Due to the spike of Covid cases in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, all the public events festivals have come to standstill. The new entrant to list is the famous Karaikal Mangani Thiruvizha. The festival, that is been celebrated for four days, was one of the quietest events in the last several decades.
Usually, people come out in large numbers on the streets. Residents offer prayers to their deities -- Lord Pikchadanamurthy also called Lord Shiva -- and toss mangoes from balconies at the crowd during the festival. But on Saturday, it was different. There was no such gathering or tossing up of mangoes at the crowd.
"We did not buy sacks of mangoes this year," says J Sivaganesh, a resident from Lemaire Street. "We celebrated the festival at home. We offered mangoes to the portrait of Lord Pikchadanamurthy (Lord Shiva) at home," he said.
The Karaikal Mangani Thiruvizha festival is celebrated at Karaikal Ammaiyur Temple. The festival is celebrated as the commemoration of the wedding between the merchant Shri Paramadhatthar and Shri Punithavathi, a sixth-century Saivite saint, who was later known as Karaikal Ammaiyar. Karaikal Ammaiyar was the devotee of Lord Shiva, who blessed her by offering mangoes.
On Saturday was the fourth and final day of the festival, which is also called as Mangani Iraithal (mango tossing). This year, devotees offered mangoes to Lord Pikchadanamurthy inside the premises of Karaikal Ammaiyar Temple.
R Venkatesh Shivachariyar, the priest of the temple said, "There was no participation from the public this year. We prayed to the lord that the coronavirus subsides soon in the State."
The mango traders are worst affected due to the low-key Mangani festival. The wholesalers and traders purchase tonnes of mangoes from other districts. Thisyear they had to reduce the procurement of mangoes by 90 per cent.
K Rajendran, a fruit wholesaler, said, "I used to buy at least 10 tonnes of mangoes such as Neelam, Ottu, Rumali and Banaganapalle from Nagapattinam. But this year, I procured less one ton of mangoes. Moreover, there was a surge in prices due to non-availability of mangoes in the market."