Festival
The world’s largest annual gathering of women — ten days at Attukal Temple, climaxing in citywide Pongala offerings to Attukal Amma.
About
Attukal Pongala is a ten-day Pongala festival celebrated in the Malayalam month of Kumbham (February–March) at the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram. On the ninth day — a full-moon day and the main Pongala day — millions of women gather around the temple and cook consecrated rice offerings in earthen pots (pongala), offered to Attukal Amma, the temple goddess (believed to be Bhadrakali). Tradition holds that Attukal Amma joins as one of the women participants. Only security personnel, temple authorities, and priests are allowed near the temple among men. Marked by Guinness World Records as the largest annual gathering of women (1.5 million in 1997; 2.5 million in 2009; about 4 million reported in 2026), it turns the capital into a city-wide sacred kitchen.
Attukal Pongala is recognised by Guinness World Records as the largest annual gathering of women. The 23 February 1997 celebration, with about 1.5 million women, entered the record book; in 2009 attendance reached about 2.5 million. Recent years have seen still larger turnouts — around 40 lakh (4 million) women were reported for 2026 — filling streets and open spaces across Thiruvananthapuram.
Women observe a vratham before making Pongala: one meal a day and abstinence from non-vegetarian food and alcohol. On Pongala day a hearth is prepared and purified with water, and a traditional lamp is lit beside it. Cooking begins after the temple’s main hearth, the Pandara Aduppu, is lit; devotees then start their own pots. After offering, the fast is broken with coconut water, milk, and similar drinks.
Sharkkara pongala — raw rice, jaggery, coconut, and cardamom — is offered for prosperity. Vella pongala (pongala payasam) — raw rice, milk, banana, and rock sugar — is a votive offering of gratitude for answered prayers. Vellachoru combines raw rice, coconut, and banana.
Alongside Pongala, devotees prepare Therali appam (rice flour, jaggery, banana, and cardamom steamed in therali leaves), Mandaputtu (steamed balls of roasted green gram, rice flour, jaggery, coconut, and cardamom, offered for hair and head-related ailments), and Vellapayasam (chamba raw rice, coconut, and ghee).
The festival centres on Attukal Bhagavathy Temple and radiates through neighbourhood streets, courtyards, and open grounds. Earthen pots over improvised hearths turn roads into a continuous field of offerings — one of Kerala’s most striking images of collective devotion.
More festivals
Other celebrations across Kerala's calendar.