In society, men and woman have their roles cut out for them and also, to a large extent their attire…. But one ritual, demolishes the difference between genders and social norms. This is Chamayavilakku. The unusual festival is celebrated in the southern part of India in the state of Kerala. This festival is celebrated in the premises of Kottan kulangara sree devi temple in Chavara Village, where thousands of boys and men cross-dress to please the goddess Bhagavathy. Men from all parts of India come to participate in this strange and bold festival. As one enters the premises of temple one can witness women with lots of jewelry and in traditional attire but if you look closely, you will realise that these are men and not women. This cross-dressing festival has a lot of tales linked to its origin but the most popular belief is that a group of cow-herders found a coconut at this place. They threw that coconut on a stone and immediately blood started oozing from the stone. They told their elders about this and it was decided that they should construct a temple at this place as that stone seemed to have supernatural powers. Earlier only women were allowed inside the temple. Accepting this tradition, men also started dressing as women before entering the temple. People in Kerala celebrate this festival over two days. During these days one would witness strange and unique visuals, like boys accompanying their fathers - both dressed as women, husbands dressed as women while being accompanied by their wives and mothers dressing up their sons as girls. People believe that if they take the blessings of goddess Bhagavathi, she will fulfill all of their wishes. Men visit the temple in traditional women’s attire, with an oil lamp in their hands. They have to take three rounds around the temple after which they seek the blessings of the goddess standing or sitting in the temple premises with the lamp in their hands through the night. In a time where women are fighting for their right to enter holy shrines in the country, the festival of Chamayavilakku sees men dressing as women to be able to enter the temple of Kottan kulangara sree devi. This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of HD imagery from South Asia. The collection comprises of 150, 000+ hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM / SR 1080i High Definition, Alexa, SR, XDCAM and 4K. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world… Please subscribe to our channel wildfilmsindia on Youtube for a steady stream of videos from across India. Also, visit and enjoy your journey across India at www.clipahoy.com , India’s first video-based social netwo
