On the 10th and 11th of the Malayalam month of Meenam (mid-March to mid-April), countless males impersonated ladies throng the Kottankulangara Sri Bhagavathy Temple in Kollam for its yearly celebration, Chamayavilakku. Based on custom, throughout the two-day event, guys line up from the temple gate for the ritualistic Ezhunnallathu (procession) around 2 a.m., holding lights with 5 wicks to look for the true blessings of the administering divine being, goddess Durga. This gender-bending celebration is a flamboyant screen of sartorial imagination. Guy deck up in females’s clothing, total with jewellery and devices. Every year, a number of studios and green spaces mushroom near the temple to assist male enthusiasts change into ladies. On both days of the celebration, the exact same routines are followed. This custom returns to the temple’s legend, according to which when some cowherds tried to smash a coconut with a stone and it started to bleed. Astrologists found that the stone held Vanadurga’s magnificent force, and they advised the regional individuals to put up a shrine around it. At the time, women carried out pujas in the temple. The cowherds for that reason impersonated women to carry out the temple’s preliminary pujas. Young boys listed below the age of 10 likewise dress up as ladies for Kakkavilakku, a part of the Chamayavilakku celebration, however held throughout the
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