Thiruvananthapuram:
Thousands of people in Kerala today performed the 'bali tharpanam' ritual to propitiate departed souls on the auspicious occasion of 'Karkitaka vavu', the eve of the new moon of the last month of the Malayalam calendar.
Devotees thronged river banks and seashores in the early hours to perform the annual ceremony to remember their ancestors and pray for them.
The ritual consists of offering cooked rice, gingelly seeds, sandalpaste, flowers and water by chanting mantras to invoke the memory of the departed souls.
There was heavy turnout of people in places like the sandbanks of Periyar river at Aluva near Kochi, the Parasurama temple at Thiruvallam and Papanasam beach at Varkala near Thiruvanathapuram and the Lord Vishnu temple at Tirunelli in Wayanad district.
Various temple boards had made elaborate arrangements for the occasion.