Festival of Goddess – Ammavari Panduga
Ammavari Panduga – This is a festival of village Godess – this is mostly observed for a period of 9 days unless the village committee decides to extend it further for few days.
Initially the village commitee announces dates and accordingly the villagers does intimate the announcement to their near and dear ones and send invitations to be present during the festival. Since this is considered to be one of the biggest festivals people make it a point to be around during the festival. You will find that all the houses are painted and decorated. Even the people buy new clothes to wear during the festival.
During the festival everyday a procession takes place which goes around the village. The pujari (priests) carry the earthen pots which are decorated with colors, sindhur, pasupu(turmeric) , flowers and go to each and every house and the villagers offer prasad (cakes), rice, and any other items . They wash the feet of the person carrying the decorated earthen pot, light lamps, incent sticks. The devotee hold a bunch of neem leaves which are considered to be auspicious for the Godess. In turn the priest give paste of pasupu (turmetic) as Prasadam. During the procession, there will be village band (dappulu) and people accomopany the same and particularly the children dance all the way. The children used to get banana (plantain) which is offered to the Godess, to eat on the way.
The procession generally starts in the evening and by the time the cover each and every house of the village it at times becomes very late in the night to get back to its original place.
During the festival, you will find pendals with variety of games, sale of toys, sweet shops, light decoration all the places in the village. People play cards and enjoy.
During the festival you will find a number of street plays, Burra Kadha (three artistes will be there – one is the main one who leads the story by singing poems/songs and the second person used to explain while the third person always try to cut jokes and make spectators happy. These programmes generally runs all through the night.
While this process runs throughout the nine day period, the ninth day has more significance as it is the final day and you will not find a place to sit – so much of rush not only from the same village but also people visit from near and far off places.
During this period a number of bullock cart shows where people decorate in shapes of different Gods and stand on the Cart. There are number of cars and people enjoy and follow the bullock carts.
You will find pindi vantalu (sweet and hot dishes) in all the houses. In each house you will find full of relatives.
Government also make arrangements to ensure proper sanitation, security and other facilities.