Tens of thousands of devotees from southern districts thronged Subramania Swamy temple here on Sunday on the occasion of Vaikasi Visakam festival.
The festival marks the birth star, Visakam of Tamil month of Vaikasi. The 10-day festival began on June 3.
The temple was opened at 1 a.m. on Sunday and long queue of devotees waited in the queue to witness Viswarooba dharsan at 1.30 a.m. and udhayamarthanda abhishekam held at 2 a.m.
The crowd swelled as the day broke to watch the special abhishekams and deeparathana. The presiding deity was taken in a golden palanquin and reached Vasantha mandapam when the special pujas continued.
Temple fitperson, Kannan Adithan, Joint Commissioner, Karthik, and others were present.
The devotees from various parts of Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi and Virudhungar districts also reached the temple on foot as part of their vow. The sprawling temple premises and the seashore had witnessed huge crowd as the festival was being held after two years due to COVID restrictions.
Besides, with the schools reopening only on Monday, the festival brought additional crowd to Tiruchendur.
The devotees also carried milk pots and various types of kavadis and also pierced different sizes of 'alagu' (vel).
After having a holy dip in the sea and at Nazhikinaru, the devotees also performed 'angapradasanam'.
Hundreds of police personnel, led by Superintendent of Police, L. Balaji Saravanan, were deployed on the temple premises.
Special buses were operated from various places to the temple.
