Attukal Pongala, an annual temple festival held in Kerala attended by lakhs of women is currently underway at Bhagavathy Temple in Trivandrum. This year, an estimated 40 lakh women have gathered in the state's capital city for the celebrations. Trivandrum MP Shashi Tharoor who also attended the temple festival took to Twitter sharing pictures and videos of the rituals. The MP had previously shared a video inviting women devotees planning to part of the world popular event.

Tharoor shared photos and videos of the chief priest igniting the sacred flame of the makeshift stove to prepare the divine mixture to be offered to Attukal Amma. Attukal Pongala entered the Guinness book of world records for being the largest women gathering festival in the world with a gathering of 2.5 million women. Attukal Pongala 2019: Date, Significance and Stories of the Temple Festival at the 'Sabarimala of Women'.

Shashi Tharoor invites women devotees to the temple festival:

Check out Shashi Tharoor's tweet below:

Women light their stoves and begin preparation only after the priest's initiation.

The sacred flame is passed to different directions to ignite millions of brick stoves for food preparation.

A mixture of rice, jaggery, shredded coconut and banana are boiled together inside the pot.

Check out the video below:

Devotees chanted the hymns 'Amme Saranam, Devi Saranam' waiting for the rice to boil. This year, a total of 250 priests are looking after the offering taking place.

A cow depicting bountiful harvest!

Annadanam or serving food following the rituals:

There are various stories and legends attached to the Attukal Pongala celebrations in the state. Women worship Goddess Bhadrakali, an incarnation of Devi also known as Attuakal Amma. Like previous years, a Green Protocol that bans the use of plastic items around the festival zone is in the place like the previous years. Around 300 Railway Police Force (RPF) personnel including 100 female police officers have been deployed across the city to ensure the safety of the devotees and maintain law and order.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 20, 2019 12:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).