Kerala · February–March · Temple Festival
Attukal Pongala
The World's Largest All-Women Religious Gathering
Tags: Attukal Pongala · Kerala Festival · Attukal Temple · Thiruvananthapuram · Women Festival India · Bhagavathy
Kerala's **Attukal Pongala**, centered around the **Attukal Bhagavathy Temple** in Thiruvananthapuram, is notable for the enormous participation of women who prepare ritual offerings.
Rows of cooking hearths can extend across surrounding streets during the observance.
A City Transforms
For a single day, tens of lakhs (millions) of women gather in Thiruvananthapuram to prepare **pongala** — the traditional sweet rice offering — in earthen pots on temporary brick hearths.
The hearths line every street, park, sidewalk and open ground for kilometers around the Attukal temple.
The gathering is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest religious gathering of women in the world.
An Urban Miracle
It provides an extraordinary example of religious practice temporarily reshaping an urban landscape.
The prasadam is offered to Goddess Attukal Bhagavathy and shared with the community.
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