Attukal Pongala

Attukal Pongala is a 10-day Pongala festival celebrated in the month of Kumbham (February-March), at the Attukal Temple in Thiruvananthapuram in the Indian state of Kerala. On the ninth day, a full moon day, considered the pongala day, millions of women gather near the temple surroundings and prepare consecrated food made of rice in earthen pots (pongala/porridge) and offer it to Attukal Amma, the Goddess of the Temple. Women from different communities, educational and occupational backgrounds join to celebrate the festival, they cook together and importantly without men as on this day they are not responsible to their husbands and families. The presiding deity, Attukal Amma, understood to be goddess Bhadrakali herself is believed to join as one of the woman participants. The only men allowed near the temple are security personnel, temple authorities and priests.

The festival is marked as the largest annual gathering of women by the Guinness World Records. The celebration of this festival on February 23, 1997, when 1.5 million women participated entered the Guinness Book of World Records. In 2009, a new Guinness World Records celebrated 2.5 million women attendance. Currently over 40 lakhs or 4 million women participate in Attukal Pongala.

The Attukal Temple is also called the Sabarimala for Women. The Pongala festival in this temple is the earliest Pongala festival in Kerala, and starts with the ritual called 'Aduppuvettu'—the lighting of the pongala hearth (called Pandarayaduppu) placed inside the temple by the chief priest.