Attukal Pongal 2025 Date

About Attukal Pongal

Ten days at Thiruvananthapuram's Attukal Bhagavathy Temple, but day nine is the spectacle: millions of women line the streets for kilometres, each cooking sweet rice over her own brick hearth as an offering to the goddess. It holds the Guinness record for the world's largest gathering of women.

The goddess of Attukal is identified with Kannaki, the wronged heroine of the Tamil epic Silappadikaram. After the Pandya king of Madurai wrongly executed her husband Kovalan, she tore off her breast and burned the city in rage. The Pongala cools that wrath. On day nine, the chief priest lights the Pandara Aduppu — the lead hearth inside the temple — and that single flame is passed outward, kindling every street hearth in turn. Women cook 'pongala', rice boiled with jaggery, coconut and ghee, until it boils over; the overflow is the sign the goddess has accepted the offering. Only women may prepare it, which is why the temple is called the 'Sabarimala of Women'. The ten days close late that night with Kuruthitharpanam, a propitiatory blood-offering ritual.