Located in the Alappuzha district in Kerala, Chettikulangara Bhagavathy Temple is a well known temple famous for its annual Kumbha Bharani festival. The festival in this temple is very popular and an eye-catching visual cultural display as the Thrissur Pooram. The Kettukazhcha festival of the temple draws a large number of devotees which held in Kumbham, the Malayalam month that usually falls in the English months of February or March.
Chettikulangara Bhagavathy Temple is almost 1200 years old which is under the managementof the Travancore Devaswom Board. Goddess Bhagavati is the deity in this temple. A rare large oil lamp known as ‘Kuthu Vilakku’ is a special feature of this South Indian temple which can light more than 1000 wicks at a time.
The most important feature of Chettikulangara Sree Bhagavathi temple is that the deity here worshipped in 3 different forms. In the morning, the deity in the temple is Saraswati while it worshipped in the afternoon as Lakshmi Devi. In the evening, the deity in the temple is Bhadrakali Devi. In addition to the main deity, there are several upadevethas or sub deities in this temple such as Ganapathi, Yakshini, Naga Yakshi and Nagarajav.
Kumbha Bharani is the major festival in this temple which is held on the Bharani star of Kumbham, the Malayalam month which usually falls either in the month of February or March. Kuthiyottam and Kettukazhcha are the main attractions of this festival. Kuthiyottam is a procession which begins early morning while Kettukazhcha is performed in the evening.
‘Ethirelpu Ulsavam’ is the annual festival of the temple that lasts for 13 days. This annual festival begins 10 days after the main Kumbha Bharani. Aswathy Ulsavam is also a popular festival of this temple and a large crowd visits the temple to enjoy the festival. This festival of Chettikulangara Sree Bhagavathi temple held in the Malayalam month of Meenam.
Worshippers used to offer grains to goddess and which are later used for preparing prasadams and appms. There will be ‘Bharani Chanda’ in the area which is a part of the mind-blowing annual Kumbha Bharani festival where people can buy so many household items and other things.
A lot of people from different parts of the state visit Chettikulangara Bhagavathy Temple to worship and get the spontaneous blessings of the Bhagavathy. Kayamkulam and Mavelikkara are the nearest railway stations to reach this temple and both of them are almost 6 kilometers away. The nearest Cochin International Airport is approximately 85 kilometers from Alappuzha to reach this temple.