Devotees who participated in a special puja on the occasion of Shivaratri at Poochiyur near Narasimhanaickenpalayam in Coimbatore broke coconuts on their heads and offered prayers.
Coimbatore: Devotees broke coconuts on their heads and offered prayers during the Shivaratri festival held near Narasimhanaickenpalayam in Coimbatore district.
In Poochiyur village near Narasimhanaickenpalaya, special poojas are performed every year on the occasion of Shivarathri. On this occasion, thousands of devotees gather at the 400-year-old Veerabadraswamy, Mahalakshmi and Vettaikkarasamy temples to worship the Lord.
The event will be attended by thousands of people from more than 20 villages in the surrounding areas. Similarly, this year too, as usual, The Shivaratri festival was celebrated in a grand manner.
In the early hours of the morning, the devotees broke coconuts on their heads in front of Lord Mahalakshmi and paid their obeisance.
Following this, the priest of the temple came in a procession in front of Veerabadra Swamy, wearing wooden shoes with sharp nails, towards the feet and reached the temple.
During the Vettaikkarasamy procession, on the path where the priest arrives, the women lie down on the ground, as per their wishes in their minds, to fulfill their demands. The priest wearing a nail palette will walk. It is the belief of the women that if the priest's feet are touched, their demands will be fulfilled.
The incident had created quite a stir 15 years ago. The human rights movement and the Women's Rights Awareness Society protested against this bizarre form of worship.
For the past 14 years, no one has been lying on the floor because of the court's ban on women lying on the floor while the priest is walking, wearing a nail shoe called a pin bed.
The devotees who attended the event said that the festival, which has been going on for the last 400 years, will be held for prayer purposes. They demanded that the event be allowed to be held instead of banning it.
Thousands of devotees participated in the ceremony and had darshan of the deity. Annadhanam was also distributed to all of them.