Attukal Pongala is a 10-day religious festival celebrated at the

Attukal Bhagavathy Temple ''Pongala'' is a harvest festival of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The name 'Pongala' means 'to boil over' and refers to the ritualistic offering of porridge made of rice, sweet brown molasses, coconut gratings, nuts and raisins. Generally women devotee ...

in Thiruvananthapuram in the Indian state of Kerala. On the ninth day there is a huge gathering of millions of women on the temple surroundings. These women prepare a divine food made of rice in earthen pots and offer it to the Attukal Amma (Goddess of the Temple). The pongala preparation starts with the ritual called 'Aduppuvettu'. This is the lighting of the pongala hearth (called Pandarayaduppu) placed inside the temple by the chief priest. This is the earliest Pongala festival in Kerala. The festival is marked as the largest annual gathering of women by the Guinness World Records. The ceremony was set up in Guinness Book of World Records on February 23, 1997, when 1.5 million women participated in Pongala. In 2009, a new Guinness World Records celebrated 2.5 million attendance. This temple is also known as the ''

Sabarimala The Sabarimala Temple (; ml, ശബരിമല ക്ഷേത്രം) is a temple complex located at Sabarimala hill inside the Periyar Tiger Reserve in the Perinad Village, Pathanamthitta district, Kerala, India. It is one of the largest ...

for women''. Though it is a Hindu festival, many Christian women in Kerala also offers Pongala to the Goddess. The Attukal Pongala was held on March 9, 2020. The Attukal Pongala event started at 10.20 am and ends at 2.10 pm with the traditional Nivedyam. Thousands of women participated despite the high alert from the state government against large gatherings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The next Attukal Pongala will be held on February 17, 2022.

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* Guinness World Records Hindu festivals in Kerala Gatherings of women Hinduism and women {{Hindu-temple-stub