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Attukal Pongala to be held today: World's largest gathering of women
In 2009, the ritual had made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for being the largest religious gathering of women on a single day when over 2.5 million people took part in it.
Tens of thousands of women are expected to line up on the streets of Kerala’s capital on Tuesday to perform the annual Attukal Pongala festival, in which devotees offer pongala, a gruel made of rice, jaggery, ghee and coconut, to the presiding deity.
Here's everything you need to know about the world's largest gathering of women:
1) The proceeding of the pongala offering will begin at 10.30am, with the chief priest of the temple lighting the stove with fire brought from the temple’s sanctum sanctorum. The ceremony will conclude with the sprinkling of holy water by temple priests.
2) Usually, women from Kerala and neighbouring Tamil Nadu throng the temple, often called Sabarimala of women, in large numbers for the festival.
3) In 2009, the ritual had made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for being the largest religious gathering of women on a single day when over 2.5 million people took part in it.
4) In anticipation of the huge turnout this year after the Covid-19 pandemic, police and the fire department have put in place extensive arrangements to ensure that the festival is celebrated without any mishap or inconvenience to the public.
5) Attukal Temple is called the "Women's Sabarimala" as only women perform rituals, while it is predominantly men who undertake the pilgrimage to the hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala.
