Traders who sell fish and meat in front of Chirakkara Bhagavathy; unique tradition of temple in Kerala

KOLLAM: Fish and meat trading is like an offering during the Chirakkara Bhagavathy temple festival. The festival lasts for five days at the temple. However, the fish sales take place on the Karthika day of the Kumbha month, the main festival day. The market is held in the temple grounds outside the temple enclosure wall under the leadership of the festival committee.

The sales, which start at 5 am, will end at 12 noon. Last year, fish worth Rs. 6 lakh and meat worth Rs. 1.5 lakh were sold in seven hours. This year's festival was yesterday. A sale similar to last year's took place this year as well.

On the night before Kumbha Karthika, there will be a big competition between traders at Neendakara, Shakthikulangara, Kollam and Anchuthengu harbours to catch fish for the temple festival. People from all over the surrounding areas will come here as they get good fish. The festival market will also have local specialities like baskets, palm mats and tubers.

Fish buying is a tradition

The fish sales at the Chirakkara festival market is a centuries-old tradition. It is a tradition for the locals to come here on the day of Kumbha Karthika to buy fish. The root place (Moolasthanam) of the Chirakkara Bhagavathy temple is in Kannur Madayi Kavu, where chicken meat is offered as prasadam. Legend has it that centuries ago, a Yogi Lord brought the Bhadra Bhagavathy in her calm form from Madayi Kavu to Chirakkara. There are three deities in the shrine. The main deity is a mirror in the concept of Bhadra Bhagavati. On the right side of Bhadra Bhagavati is Goddess Durga and on the left is Lord Mahadev.