Situated about 8 Kms from the town of Cherthala en route to Alleppey is the residing seat of Bhadrakali, Kanichukulangara Bhagavathy.
This temple becomes a beehive of activity during the 21 day festival in the Malyalam calendar month Kumbham. (February)
Parents with little children flock to this temple to seek the blessings of the Mother Goddess.
Parents with their wards camp in and around the temple in small shelters provided to them during the brief stay and pray to Goddess for 21 days.
Children dressed in glittering costumes and ornaments and a red cloth tied on their head spend most of their time in the temple worshiping the Mother. This is known as Chikkara iruthal.
Chikara iruthal is belived to cure children from many ailments like walking disability or slow speech problems. Many parents also bring their children just to keep them in the care of the loving Goddess .
It was a great experience visiting the temple during this great festival.
This year about 3000 children are camping in the temple vicinity to offer prayers and seek blessings.
Some clicks from my recent visit.
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This temple becomes a beehive of activity during the 21 day festival in the Malyalam calendar month Kumbham. (February)
Parents with little children flock to this temple to seek the blessings of the Mother Goddess.
Parents with their wards camp in and around the temple in small shelters provided to them during the brief stay and pray to Goddess for 21 days.
Children dressed in glittering costumes and ornaments and a red cloth tied on their head spend most of their time in the temple worshiping the Mother. This is known as Chikkara iruthal.
Chikara iruthal is belived to cure children from many ailments like walking disability or slow speech problems. Many parents also bring their children just to keep them in the care of the loving Goddess .
It was a great experience visiting the temple during this great festival.
This year about 3000 children are camping in the temple vicinity to offer prayers and seek blessings.
Some clicks from my recent visit.
I have enabled comment moderation .
27 comments:
nice exclusive blog for Kerala temples and festivals.
How wonderful, now this is what I call a festival.
colorful and excellent:)
thanks a lot for the comment.
Thanks PW, I have missed a lot. Lot to catch up now..
Thanks Rameshji
Seems a very popular temple from the crowd gathered.But I felt the arrangements for three weeks stay could be better giving the families mostly ladies and young children certain privacy,better cooking/catering, bathing facility.It must be hard to live in those tents for sucha long duration.
Nice post on the temple.
http://rajniranjandas.blogspot.in/2013/02/maha-kumbh-mela.html
KP,very popular temple, Facilities can be better but this is how things are. Devotees do not mind all these as they are there on a mission.
Thanks Niranjan.
This looks so different! And it is good to see so many young kids also enjoying the festival. Lovely place, thanks for sharing Chitra :)
Hi Arti,
thanks for the visit and comment.I too enjoyed visiting this temple
Wonderful post. I felt like knowing more about the significance of the red scarf.
The kids look so cute. Lovely set of pictures. Keep them coming.
PNS, It could be more like a uniform..to identify children participating in chikkara. Red cloth is usually used in Bhagavathy temples.
Thank you Mridula.
great collection of photos...
i think your visit is on a festival time...
nice description
thanks chitra
I didn't know about this temple and such a ritual. Its a news to me. Thanks for sharing Chitra ma'am. The kids look so cute
Thanks Insignia, long time..shall be visitng your blog soon.was away for along time.
Beautiful..!
Stopping by to say hello. Best wishes, PW.
Lovely photos with such cute little faces!
Good post... nice snaps
thanks for sharing :)
Hi Chitra, I haven't been to this temple in Cherthala but it is interesting to read your post on it. Keep writing.
Thanks Sanand. Happy I could visit the temple during the festival and get some pictures. My trip was also for the first time.
This was beautiful Chitra; I wish that they did not renovate temples like this!!! Convenience or no convenience. It also reminds us that many such temples do not need imposing structures.
Shri, that is very true.well said!!
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