Celebrations and mourning mark the annual festival of transgender community

The festival is popular across Maharashtra and Karnataka, explained Vicky Shinde, particularly in Savadatti, Karnataka, where there is a temple for the goddess. In Worli on Tuesday, the rituals started at 9pm in the night and continued till 12 midnight

Mumbai: With foreheads smeared with haldi and kum-kum (tumeric and vermilion powder), body draped in colourful sarees; bangles and mangalsutras adorning the get-up, members of the transgender community, who call themselves Jogtis (devotees), celebrated the annual festival of Kich, also known as Chudi Poornima, on Tuesday night in the city.

Mumbai, India - Dec. 26, 2023: The biggest celebration in the transgender community, The widowhood is performed in an elaborate bangle-braking ceremony at Worli in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, December 26, 2023. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

The festival holds paramount importance for the members of the community as they get married to Goddess Yellamma, also called as Renuka, in order to transform themselves into women. Rituals are enacted amidst dance and song.

“The festival has been celebrated in Mumbai since ages,” said Zoya Lobo, a transgender photojournalist. “It takes place in several places, outside the houses of gurus or their followers, in small gatherings and large. It takes place on a full moon night of Datta Jayanti, which falls in the month of December or January.”

The festival is popular across Maharashtra and Karnataka, explained Vicky Shinde, particularly in Savadatti, Karnataka, where there is a temple for the goddess. In Worli on Tuesday, the rituals started at 9pm in the night and continued till 12 midnight. Around 200 people were there, participants, devotees and onlookers. Shinde was one of the participants and organisers, as well as being an artist, actor and activist.

“I’ve been participating in this festival for the last 15 years,” said Shinde.

The festival goes like this. Those from the transgender community dress up in bridal finery enacting their marriage to the Goddess Yellamma. “We give our devotional attention to the Goddess, dressing up to please her,” said Lobo.

A havan is then held for the Goddess to symbolise her death, with prayers and aarti. Then they symbolise their widowhood, breaking their bangles with stones and coconuts and grieving, crying and beating their chests in a show of grief. “Those who’ve made mannat (wishes) carry the goddess on their heads and walk on coals,” said Lobo.

After the festival, the Goddess and her face is covered with cloth for three days, as a mark of mourning. “Only after these three days do we do pooja of the goddess, and she’s only given a white saree to wear,” said Shinde. The mourning period, just as it would if a family member has died, continues for a short while after, with many of the participants wearing white and excluding themselves from joyous or spiritual activities.

“I am exhausted after the whole night of celebrating,” said Shinde. “But I continue to do this as I feel a particular satisfaction from continuing the traditions of centuries for the devi (goddess). There is a lot of happiness commemorating this with the community.”

“It is in essence a festival for the cleansing of all the negative feelings trapped in the body all year, a banishing of the bad auras,” said Lobo.