Salem: Devotees observed the 'Mayana Kollai' festival here in Sevvaipettai, Pallappatti, Astampatti areas of the town here on Wednesday. The festival is a ritual closely associated with the worship of Goddess Angalamman.
The 'Mayana Kollai' or looting of graveyard festival, is celebrated amidst the dead. The event involves processions to the crematorium with deities riding chariots, and devotees dancing with painted faces and narrating the lives of gods in the form of songs, narrating the mythology of Angalamman.
Folklore has it that Shiva severed one of the heads of Brahma and brought an end to creation. The deity, Angalamman, consort of Shiva, then goes with him to the cremation ground and dances with him to bring back life.
This traditional festival is observed as part of the Masi Amavasai festival, in which devotees donning costumes of Angaalamman, kill lambs and poultry birds with their bite and come in a procession around the temple premises and streets in town.
In Salem, the deity Angalamman was colourfully decorated and adorned with varieties of flowers and taken in a procession to the crematorium. Several other devotees dressed in the forms of deities Angalamman, Periyannan, Muniyappan, and Karuppannan, joined the revelers.
Decked in peacock plumes with a dash of turmeric and kumkum on their faces, but liberally smeared all over their bodies, these devotees joined the dancing and proceeded towards the crematorium to fufill their vows they had made to the deity.
There, they offered live poultry and sheep to the deity, when devotees dressed like Kali furious devoured the lamb and chicken offered, with some of them carrying the dead animals in their mouth. Some devotees were lying down in a line by the side of the crematorium. Some of devotees in 'Amman' form, crossed over the ones lying down and concluded their vows to the deity. Others offered poojas and offered food to the dead to appease them, and concluded their rituals.
