14 thoughts on “Wordless Wednesday: Rituals”

    1. Thank you so much, Neha 🙂

      This ritual is part of a rare theyyam which happens only once in 12 years.

      On this day, all the little girls who belong to a particular community, who are the custodians of the temple, are symbolically getting married along with the goddess itself.

      This is theyyam season and the ambiance is magical in northern most Kerala 🙂

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    1. Indeed Eliza, they are all treated as goddesses on this day or the companions of the goddess to be precise.

      This is a rare ritual, which happens only once in 12 years and it’s the day before the wedding of the goddess ‘Muchilot Bhgavathy’.

      It’s a mega event and lakhs of people visit the temple in a village on these days and food is served for all of them.

      Just feels lucky to live in such a culturally vibrant place 🙂

      Thank you so much for your visit and kind words 🙂

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    1. Thank you so much Takami for your kind words and happy to let you know that we are all doing great 🙂

      This is the peak theyyam season and enjoying my time watching theyyam and taking photos …

      As I work in the sustainable tourism area, this time of the year is especially buy with lot of activities, community training, conferences, in bound tour programmes and collective farming programmes etc;

      Sorry for the digital silence, I am enjoying all your work whenever I get some free time in between 🙂

      Have a great time 🙂

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  4. This is lovely… these loveable little angels all decked up, riding on their (most probably) father’s shoulder is like the best part of their childhood… Wonderful capture! Sreejith, can you tell something more about this ritual, seeing this beautiful picture I became curious to know in detail. Thanks for sharing this picture.

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    1. Hello Sarmistha, it’s indeed a rare ritual and even I witnessed it for the first time.

      As you would have seen many a Theyyam images in my blog, there are some special Theyyams, which happens in some particular temples in this region, only once in twelve years or more.

      These temples are called ‘Muchilot’ and the theyyam is of a goddess called ‘Muchilot Bhagavathy’.

      The custodians of these kind of temples belong to a particular community called ‘Vaaniya’ and the evening before the actual Theyyam, this event happens, where, as you correctly observed, all these small girls take a ride on the shoulders of their father or maternal uncle.

      Symbolically they are all getting married along with the goddess and they are all goddess’s friends or companions.

      There a number of such temples in northern most kerala and at least you can expect two or three these mega events every year.

      Almost one and a half Lakh people are served with feast on these 3-4 days and the whole community irrespective of caste, religion and politics take part in such ‘Perumkaliyattam’.

      Thank you so much for your visit and comments which gave me a chance to explain 🙂

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      1. Thank you Sreejith, for all these information which I had no idea of. There are many thing that are specific to a particular region and is not known to the others of the same nation. Through your posts I get to know a lot about the culture and tradition of Kerala.

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