Thousands take part in Vaikasi Visakam festival

Thousands of devotees witnessed Vaikasi Visakam festival, celebrated to mark the birth of Lord Murugan, and took part in the holy car procession at Sri Periyanayaki Amman Temple here on Monday evening.

Earlier, the Lord and Goddesses Sri Valli and Sri Deivanai were mounted on the holy car in the forenoon. Special pujas were performed to the deities and to the car in the evening.

With chants of ‘Arohara’ renting the air, devotees pulled the car from the base.

Celestial wedding was performed around 7 p.m. on Sunday. The 10-day festival will conclude on Thursday. Heavy crowd was witnessed at the Dhandayuthapaniswamy Hill Temple during the festival period.

Tirupparankundram

Devotees thronged the Subramaniaswamy Temple in Tirupparankundram, one among the ‘Aarupadaiveedu’ or the six sacred abodes of the deity. The idols of Lord Shanmuganathar, Goddess Deivannai and Goddess Valli were brought out from the sanctum sanctorum of the temple to the Vaikasi mandapam for special abhishekams at 5.30 a.m. Thousands of devotees had come from the city and the surrounding villages to perform milk abhishekam to the deities as is the custom. Many women and children took out processions to the temple, carrying milk pots on their heads from their residential areas.

The devotees who had turned up in large numbers also offered their prayers by piercing their tongues with spears. Many of them also carried ‘kavadis’ and the scorching heat was no deterrent to the celebrations.

Many organisations had set up pandals near the temple distributing water and buttermilk to give respite to the devotees from the heat.

Tiruchendur

Vaikasi Visakam festival was celebrated with religious fervour at Subramaniaswamy Temple at Tiruchendur. The sanctum sanctorum was opened as early as 1 a.m. ‘Vishwaroopa darisanam’ was performed at 1.30 a.m. followed by ‘Udhayamarthanda abishekam’ ‘Uchchikala abishekam’ and other special pujas were performed.

Many pilgrims reached the temple on foot.

They carried their milk pots. Most of them carried `kavadi.'