The annual Pongala festival was celebrated at the Bhagavathy temple at Malayalappuzha, near here, on Thursday.
Hundreds of women offered the Pongala Nivedyom to the presiding deity in the forenoon.
The Pongala offering began with Tantri Parameswaran Bhattathirippad of Adimuttathu Madhom lighting the hearth with the fire brought from the sanctum sanctorum by 10 a.m.
The Kovilmala Raja, Raja Rajamannan; Mallika Sukumaran, cine artiste; K.S.Ravi, Travancore Devaswom Board member; Murali Perumbattethu, temple advisory committee president, and P.B. Noohu, District Collector, jointly lit the lamp on the occasion.
The fire in the main Pongala hearth was transferred to the small hearths prepared by the devotees on the temple premises and on the wayside.
The line of devotees offering the Pongala extended beyond Kumbazha junction, 6 km from the temple, and up to Kaduvakkuzhy on the Puthukkulam Road.
The deity was taken out in a decorated palanquin-type carriage in a procession for accepting the Nivedyom offered by the devotees outside the temple.
11-day festival
The 11-day annual temple festival at the Bhagavathy temple began with the Kodieyttu ceremony (flag hoisting) in the evening. Advisory committee president Murali Perumbattethu took the flag, Kodikkoora, in a procession to the temple precincts in the evening. The Tantri hoisted the flag during the Kodiyettu between 7.40 p.m. and 8.10 p.m. The Utsavabali darshan will be from 2 p.m. on all days from Friday. The Pallivetta prior to the Arat ceremony will be held on March 14 evening. The festival will come to a close with the ceremonial Arat on March 15.
