This time we are inviting you to watch an extraordinary festival, not inside the familiar walls of the temples, but amid a dense forest where the ambience is set by the tall trees and the gorgeous Bavali River. The festival at Kottiyoor in Kannur district involves two temples, situated on the opposite banks of River Bavali - Akkare Kottiyoor and Ikkare Kottiyoor. The annual Kottiyoor festival is celebrated for twenty-eight days and it falls during the months of May and June. Here, the Neyyattam ritual on the first day and the Thirukalasattu ritual on the concluding day are attended by hundreds of devotees.

At the temple, known as Akkare Kottiyoor, the deity is believed to be a swayambhoo lingam (self-created idol of Lord Shiva). There is no formal structure of a temple as such here. The image is seated on a ground, formed by small heap of stones called manithara. The Akkare Kottiyoor temple remains open only during the festival days. 

If you happen to be in Kottiyoor during the festival season, please do buy Odappoo or long ornamental tufts made from reed fibre. Odappoo is distributed among the devotees attending the annual festival at the temples of Kottiyoor. Devotees consider it auspicious to keep the tufts in their homes.