Samayapuram Mariamman Temple

Samayapuram Mariamman temple is very famous temple near Tiruchirappalli in the state of Tamil Nadu. The main goddess in this temple is mariamman also called as Samayapurathu amman. People from all over the world come to visit her. People who are suffering from chicken pox pray to this amman to recover from illness. After getting cured, devotees will offer flowers and other offerings as token of thanks. Many devotees present mavilakku made up of rice flour, ghee and jaggery in form of lamp base and light lamp on it. This temple celebrates Ther Thiruvila (means chariot festival) in the month of April. This festival starts on the 1st Tuesday and continues for 13 days. Devotees will take the goddess Samayapuram amman on her chariot on the 10^th day of this festival. You can find various devotees doing various rituals like walking on burning charcoal (theemithi), carrying firepots etc for getting god’s blessings or expressing their token of thanks in their own style. Another famous festival being carried out every year is “Poochoriyal” this takes place in the Tamil month Masi. It takes 28 days and the specialty of this festival is that the Goddess will fast for the goodness of her devotees. During this the main shrine remains closed for public viewing. In this temple they give annadhanam (food donation) for 100 poor people every day. Donors can give rupees 2000/- for a day or put a fixed deposit of rupees 25,000/- so that the interest amount can be used or this scheme.