The three-day Kalpathy Car festival concluded on Thursday with a ‘Rathasangamom’ of the cars of all the four temples of Kalpathy Agraharam in front of Viswanathaswamy Temple, the main centre of the festival.
On the final day of the festival, the deities of the Old Kalpathy (Lakshminarayana Perumal) Temple and the Chathapuram Ganapathy Temple are taken on a ‘grama pradakshinam’ of all the villages.
By sunset, the cars will return to their respective temples. Abhishekam will be performed and the deities would be redecorated and taken out in a procession in floral palanquins.
The festival will conclude with the palanquin returning to the temples at dawn, on the first day of the Tamil month of Karthigai coinciding with the Kadamukham festival in Mayuram.
The car festival is held annually with a view to preserving the Vedic traditions — the Brahmin settlers from Tamil Nadu here are Vedic scholars. While the rituals at the temple are strictly according to the Tamil Brahmin culture, the celebrations are in true Kerala style.
The Car Festival is also an occasion for family reunion and to renew the age-old tradition and culture.
According to K.N. Lakshminarayanan, general convener of the Ratholsava Committee, “a significant aspect of the Kalpathy Car Festival is that it is conducted with the participation of the people, without any divide of caste or creed. “Temple worship, as described in ‘Aagama Sastra’, not only brings solace to the devotees, but also enhances the sanctity of the place of worship. Hence, temple festivals attract large number of devotees,” he said.
Hundreds of shops that were put up in connection with the festival will continue to do business here till Guruvayur Ekadesi at the end of the month.
