The annual Pongala festival at Chakkulathukavu Bhagavathy Temple at Neerettupuram, near Thiruvalla, will be held on December 3.
In a statement issued here on Saturday, Manikkuttan Namboodiri, temple administrator, and K.K. Gopalakrishnan Nair, devaswom administrator, said G. Kumar Pillai, member of the Sreenivasa Perumal Devaswom attached to the Singapore Hindu Endowment Board, would inaugurate the Pongala festival on the temple premises on December 3 morning.
Chief priest Radhakrishnan Namboodiri will deliver the keynote address and Manikkuttan Namboodiri will preside. Gopinatha Pillai, industrialist and Singaporean diplomat of Indian origin, will be the guest of honour. Ajayakumar Nair, Singapore Malayali Hindu Samajom president, will deliver the keynote address.
Pongala offering
The Pongala festival would begin at 4 a.m. The chief priest will light the main Pongala hearth in front of the temple with the fire brought from the sanctum sanctorum at 10 a.m.
The devotees will offer Pongala (rice payasom) on the temple premises
and by the roadside near the temple.
Mr. Namboodiri said the temple Devaswom had opened special pongala coupon counters at Chakkulathukavu.
Cultural meet
The lighting of Karthika-sthambhom will be held immediately after deeparadhana at the temple in the evening. C.V. Ananda Bose, member of the UN Expert Committee on Affordable Housing, will kindle the Karthika-sthambhom.
For Pongala-related enquiries, call: 0477 2213550,
according to the temple authorities.
Published - November 06, 2017 10:49 pm IST
