Explanation:

What is the Pongala festival?
?    The Kuthiyottam ritual is usually performed every year during the Pongala festival at the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
?    This year, the Pongala festival falls on March 2.
?    According to Kerala's Department of Tourism, the Attukal Pongala festival is the largest congregation of women for a festival in the world.
?    Pongala, which means 'to boil over’, is a ritual in which women prepare a pudding made from rice, jaggery, coconut and plantains cooked together, and offer it to the goddess.
?     The ritual can only be performed by women, and the streets of the city are known to be jam packed with devotees during the festival.
?    Nearly 1,000 young boys undertake a seven-day penance before Pongala day. These boys are said to represent the wounded soldiers of the goddess.
?    The boys have to observe strict discipline and stay inside the temple for seven days.
?    The rigours include sleeping on the floor, strict diet restrictions, and bathing three times a day. They also have to prostrate 1,008 times before the deity,” the report said.
?    The ritual also reportedly involves piercing the child’s side with a small hook and knotting a thread through it to symbolise their bond with the Goddess.