Attukal Pongala The Feast of Millions
Thousands of women, holding their faith deep within their hearts, walk in large groups, from the households of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. They reach Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, with earthenware pots in their hands, and a desire to display their faith for Goddess Attukal (Attukal Bhagavathy). They wish to prepare potions of traditional payasam, made of rice and jaggery, as an offering to her. Three days ahead of Attukal Pongala, the city turns into a large kitchen laced with thousands of temporary hearths. Women prepare these hearths with bricks on which they scrape their name.
According to the traditional calendar, this festival falls on the Pooram day in the month of Kumbham. While the women prepare to offer prayers, the men also participate in the festivities. They help clean the roads and prepare the feast that goes along with the pongala. As the perfect aides, the men also boil drinking water and work through the night before the festival. They even snooze on the streets, listening to the music playing from various speakers, placed at corners and forks.
On the morning of the festival, the hearths or the furnaces are lit only after the furnace in the temple is lit. The fire is shared from one hearth to another. Smoke billows from the hearths while female devotees sway to the mantras being chanted as an ode to the goddess. They howl shrilly as is the custom, invoking the blessings of the goddess, and pray for the prosperity of their families. Millions of hearths are lit up from the main hearth of the temple and a collective spirituality is witnessed in this mega festival where millions of earthen pots overflow with the pongala. The city comes to a grinding halt, making way for millions of women to offer prayers and show their reverence for the deity.
Over the years, women have developed a special relationship with the deity and the festival that has fulfilled their desires and made them happy. For the worshippers, the deity is their sister, their mother, and their protector who hears all their prayers. She is Thiruvananthapuram’s Attukal Amma.