Attukal Pongala 2022: Shashi Tharoor says 'prayed for pandemic to end'

Attukal Pongala 2022: Shashi Tharoor attended the rituals at the Attukal Bhagavathy temple. (Image credit: ShashiTharoor/Twitter)

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor was among those who offered his prayers on Attukal Pongala, a festival where women offer “Pongala”.

“Prayed for blessings to all and for the pandemic to end,” the Thiruvananthapuram tweeted, after attending the ceremony.

The mass gathering of devotees and their burning brick hearths that line the roads of Kerala’s capital city, Thiruvananthapuram, were missing this Attukal Pongala. However, thousands of women, cutting across age barriers offered 'Pongala' to the presiding diety of the Attukal Bhagavathy temple, from their homes.

Waiting for the sacred flame to be lit sometimes feels like the #AttukalPongala equivalent of Waiting for Godot, except that the flame actually does arrive after all appropriate rituals! Here with ⁦@vssivakumarmla⁩ ⁦@VSivankuttyCPIM⁩ ⁦@AryaRajendranS1⁩ &devotees pic.twitter.com/m5XxMPSLyr

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) February 17, 2022

Shashi Tharoor also attended the ‘Pongala’-making ceremony at his residential complex in the city and distributed offerings from the Attukal temple. Earlier in the day, he had attended the rituals at the temple, along with Arya Rajendran, the city's mayor, and others.

Lit the lamp at the apartment building where I reside, alongside other residents who offered Pongala in the garden. Made sure to give them Prasadam from the Attukal temple, where I prayed after witnessing (as I do every year) the auspicious commencement of the #AttukalPongala. pic.twitter.com/Oy7IaoGGDh — Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) February 17, 2022

The festivities began at 10: 50 am after the chief priest lit the main hearth. Following this, women devotees lit their makeshift brick stoves, set up in the front yard of their homes, and prepared the offering with prayers.

Considered as one of the largest religious congregations of women in the world, the annual Pongala festival has been a muted affair for the past two years in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ritual had made it to the Guinness Book of World Records in 2009 for being the largest religious gathering of women on a single day when 2.5 million took part in it.