'Gangamma jatra' (folk festival) is celebrated at the Tataiah Gunta Gangamma temple in Tirupati annually. This week long festival has many peculiar rituals. During the festival period, devotees clad in various 'vesam' (disguise), criss-cross the streets of the temple town shouting filthy words as part of the tradition to drive away evil forces and offer prayers to different folk goddess in the temples. Smearing sandalwood paste all over the body, the devotees wear glittering clothes and cover their heads with jasmine garlands. They enter the temple of goddess Gangamma, after performing arati. The week long celebrations will come to a close after smashing the huge earthen idol of the goddess erected outside the temple at an auspicious time by the priest.