The community members, who were worried over the sufferings of the people due to the disease, were also not able to perform the annual ritual of getting married with Lord Aravan and the subsequent events.

The community members had last week decided to hold special poojas and the events at their respective houses and thus, on Wednesday, the transpersons from Tiruchy and Thanjavur organised simple events at several spots and worshipped Lord Koothandavar and wore mangalyam by themselves. They also performed a special pooja to free the world of the killer coronavirus. Subsequently, they distributed kabasura kudineer to their neighbours and asked them to continue to pray for the world good.

“We are worried that several thousands of people have been killed by this disease during the second wave of the pandemic and we continue to pray for the good health of the people to our Lord Koothandavar,” said Shreya, one of the members from Tiruchy.

She said that they are ready to help the frontline workers, who are on duty round the clock to serve the patients. “Though the annual festival has been stopped due to the pandemic, we worshipped at our respective houses and performed ‘kummi’ before the lord as a part of our festival and had a special pooja invoking Koothandavar to drive away the disease from the world and we are confident, that the Lord would hear our prayer,” stressed Shreya.

The community members used to converge at Koovagam for the annual festival at the Koothandavar temple during full moon day in the Tamil month of Chithirai.