Karagam Puja, The Three Day Puja

Karagam Puja is a three-day Hindu devotional festival primarily centered around the worship of Goddess Kaaliamman and associated deities, particularly in Tamil diasporic communities. The ritual is marked by intensive prayer, fasting, drumming, spiritual possession, and symbolic acts of purification, healing, and devotion. The festival involves a communal effort to invoke divine presence and channel it through ritual mediums known as maralo pujaris, who temporarily house the spirit of the goddess to offer healing and blessings to the devotees.

The festival opens with a flag-raising ceremony at the temple grounds. A multi-colored flag representing Kali Maa is raised first—white for peace, red for victory, and yellow for Shakti, or divine feminine energy. A second flag for Krishna follows, representing peace over the earth. These symbolic acts mark the awakening of the goddess and the readiness of the community to receive her. The pujaris (priests), who have undergone a 21-day fast abstaining from meat, fish, eggs, alcohol, and sexual activity, then begin preparing for the core rituals of the puja.

At the heart of Karagam Puja is the construction of Karagams, sacred ritual structures built using lota (water vessels), neem leaves arranged in a conical shape, and garlands of oleander flowers. The two Karagams represent goddesses Madurai Meenakshi and Karunai Kamakshi. These are carried on the heads of prepubescent boys, who are considered pure and free from worldly desires. Devotional songs and the rhythmic beating of thappu drums accompany the processions, designed to invite the goddess’s presence and encourage her to dance among the devotees.

A distinctive feature of the puja is the manifestation of the goddess through the maralo pujari, a volunteer who enters a trance and acts as a divine medium. The pujari undergoes purification rituals, including a turmeric and neem leaf bath, and takes lit camphor in the mouth three times to cleanse it before addressing the congregation. Once the goddess is satisfied with the offerings and prayers, she leaves the medium’s body, signifying the completion of her temporary earthly presence.

In addition to Kali Maa, the puja includes offerings to a host of other deities, including Bhumi Amma, Surya, Ganesh, Krishna, Rama, Shiva, and local guardian spirits such as Sanganie Baba and Madurai Veeran. Rituals range from standard prayers and hawan fire ceremonies to more esoteric practices, including trance possession and sacrificial offerings, such as the sacrifice of goats and chickens, believed to liberate souls from rebirth. The festival culminates with the dismantling of the Karagams, purification of the temple, and final blessings, after which devotees return home having received divine grace and their prasadam of kanji, pongal, and fruits. How we make the karagams (for educational purposes): the karagam is a pot, so you get a brass kalasam and fill it with water. if you can, buy one with two handles so the person can hold the pot by there. First, get a dry coconut, like one that is brown. Rub the coconut in turmeric after. Take a stick, large stick like a bamboo skewer, place that hoe in there somehow. Then, you will take some mango leaves, put it under the coconut on the pot, and tied the leaves to the skewer. Then, get some coconut flower pieces, just a few, and also tie them to the skewer. Take a bundle of neem leaves, place it on the coconut and tie it w a string coated in turmeric powder. Place a bunch on there, the coconut nor the stick (only a bit, maybe one inch, at the top) should be visible. Place your garlands of oleander flowers plus jasmine flower garlands at the top to create a cone of flowers covering the neem leaves. Get some thick stems of neem leafs, cut it at an angle and place it inside the flower-neem cone. Then, you can start to decorate the karagam, place an Amman face on it and tie w the same turmeric string. Add on some tilagam to amman's face, and perhaps jewerly. Place a lime on the piece of stick sticking out the flower, and place a small trishul on the lime. On this, you can place necklaces :) Here are some videos that actually documented this, it has 5 parts which talk about how this puja was done at a kovil in Canada.