Photos: Thousands of women take part in Attukal Pongala in Kerala despite coronavirus fears

Women devotees pray as they prepare rice porridge around the Attukal Devi Temple during the Pongala Festival. Despite renewed fears of coronavirus with six new cases being reported in the state, thousands of women took part in the annual celebrations in Thiruvananthapuram.

Women devotees wearing masks as a precaution against the coronavirus cook a rice dish as an offering to the temple deity during the event. The festival is all about the annual ritualistic offering - namely Pongala cooked with rice, jaggery and coconut in earthen pots - to the presiding deity of the Attukal Temple by women.

Makeshift hearths were arranged as devotees lined up the streets in large numbers.

Considered the largest religious gathering of women, this year devotees were seen offering prayers and cooking Pongala even as many were seen wearing masks amid the COVID-19 scare.

Women devotees pray as they prepare rice porridge around the Attukal Devi Temple. Even though the health department had requested people to avoid mass gatherings, thousands of women reached the city to offer Pongala.

The Pongala cooking takes place on the penultimate day of the 10-day-long Attukal festival and is done by women by sitting on the road that starts from the temple and extends to all other parts of the city.

In the year 2009, the event had registered its name in the Guinness Book of Records for having the world's largest gathering of women, around 2.5 million.

The Pongala cooking takes place on the penultimate day of the 10-day-long Attukal festival and is done by women by sitting on the road that starts from the temple and extends to all other parts of the city.

On account of the festival, its a public holiday for all in the capital district.

According to the traditions, the women who take part in the Pongala festival have to be dressed in new clothes and every item used for cooking the 'divine' pongala has to be brand new.

Various state government departments made arrangements to see that festival goes off peacefully. Close to 5,000 police officers were on duty in the capital city, including 1,500 women police officers.

Women devotees wearing masks as a precaution against a new coronavirus head to their homes after making their offerings during the annual Pongala festival at the Attukal temple in Thiruvananthapuram.