User:SweetandSaltyGrrl/Koovagam

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The current article is a stub and I would move the information of the festival separate from the basic information about the town. Our additions will aid in creating a comprehensive article about the festival with background, history, events in the festival, cultural impact, and more

Koovagam Festival-Pragya

Koovagam Koothandavar Idol

The Koovagam festival is an annual gathering of transgender women, referred to as Aravani in Tamil that begins on the full moon of the Chithirai month of the Tamil calendar. Tens of thousands of transgender women gather for an 18-day-long festival.

For the first 13 days, the festival is filled with performances and programming as well as the Miss Koovagam beauty pageant. During the 14th day of the festival, the women dress in their finest and arrive at the Koothandavar temple to become symbolic brides of the deity Aravan. Priests officiate the marriages as proxies for Aravan by tying thaalis around their necks and applying kumkum on their foreheads. The women spend a day joyously celebrating their status as newlyweds.

On the 16th day, the image of Aravan is repainted and paraded during the festival throughout the village until the deity reaches the mourning grounds, where the brides become widows and wear white sarees, remove their thaalis and break their bangles to spend a day as widows, mourning the death of Aravan. Throughout the festival NGOs spread awareness towards the high HIV rates within the transgender community in India and run testing centers.

History and Mythology-Maria

Aravan Sculpture

The mythology associated with the celebration of the Koovagam Festival comes from the myth of Aravan, a character of the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata tells the story of the 18-day Kurukshetra War and how Aravan sacrificed himself in a heroic way to help win it. In the myth, Aravan is the son of the Pandava prince Arjuna and the Naga princess Ulupi.

According to the Mahabharata, a human sacrifice known as the Kalappali had to be made by the Pandavas to win the war. The person to be sacrificed had to have the 32 lakshanam and the only 3 people to have these were Krishna, Arjuna, and Aravan. Krishna could not be sacrificed and Arjuna was essential as he was the best archer, so Aravan volunteered himself to be the one to die.

Because of his brave decision, Krishna granted him the wish of marrying before dying so he took on the form of a woman named Mohini and married Aravan. He was to be sacrificed to the Goddess Kali and so his body was cut into 32 pieces to which Kali blessed the Pandavas and allowed them to win the war. The day after Aravan's sacrifice, Mohini grieved him like a widow and followed different rituals to honor his death.

Marriage to Koothandavar and Widowhood-Regina

On the 14th day of the Koovagam festival, which is also the full moon day, transgender women dressed as Mohini gather at the Kuttatavar temple from dawn in order to get married to Aravan. Transgender people who are brides are usually dressed in their finest attire, bangles, garlands. Various offerings are also carried. , kalasha, and thali made of turmeric. In the sanctuary, there are so many priests officiating at the weddings of the brides, each of whom will marry Aravan. The priests usually act as Aravan's representatives, tying the thali around the bride's neck and performing some of the things that symbolize marriage in Hinduism. That night and the next day, a transgender lady can have sex to mark the consummation of a marriage.

On the 16th day, the idol of Aravan was taken out and paraded. Newly married transgender women gather at a place called Azhukalam, which is a designated place of mourning. As the procession proceeds, many of the decorations on Aravan's body, such as flowers, are removed, signifying that Aravan was killed on the battlefield and his flesh and bones are removed. At this point Arawan's widows collectively remove their thalis, break their bangles and cry bitterly. Lamenting their widowhood. Their attire is usually white sarees, but the dress code is temporary and transgender widows can still wear bright colors after the ceremony. These transgender women in can still come back the following year to repeat this wedding ceremony.

Miss Koovagam-Pragya

Miss Koovagam is an annual beauty pageant that occurs during the first 13 days of the Koovagam festival.

Recent winners of the beauty pageant are

Miss Koovagam 2023: K.Niranjana from Chennai

Miss Koovagam 2022: Mehandi from Chennai

Miss Koovagam 2018: Mubina from Chennai

Miss Koovagam 2017: Andrea from Chennai

HIV Awareness and NGOs-Chloe

• NGOs and their role in the festival, discourse, speakers, and more.
• There is a large stigma against the transgender community.
• Quote from ny times article - " the majority of Indians still believe that it is a vile curse, that these people are disgraced in the eyes of god.”
• In India, the transgender community lacked the access to basic healthcare
• A large portion of the message of the Koovagam Festival as eliminating the stigma and searching for equality.
• HIV/AIDS alliance in new Delhi
• These ideas come from the sex work part of the transgender community
  • Due to the discrimination that many transgender individuals face they are often kicked out of their houses and forced to resort to things like sex work and bar dancing.
  • A large majority of HIV cases in the transgender comes from this.
  • the solution to this problem is if the stigma goes away then people won't be out on the streets, HIV/AIDS cases go down.
• talk about hijra culture?