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Nallur Kandaswamy Devastanam festival draws huge crowds after peak pandemic closure
View(s):By N Lohathayalan and Pranavesh Sivakumar
On Thursday, at least 150,000 devotees took part in the chariot festival despite the bad weather. Braving the rain, devotees who came to fulfill vows with kaavadis and paatkudam proceeded in the parade, while some took refuge in temporary shelters and makeshift sheds set up for pavement shops.
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- Crowds gathered to venerate Lord Skanda after the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions Pix by N Lohathayalan
The previous day (25) a massive crowd turned up for the festival of sapparam, where the main deities are placed on a towering vehicle decorated with lights and pulled by thick ropes by devotees.
This year’s festival also marked the first one that came after the passing away of the late Iragunatha Kugasree Kumaradas Mappana Mudaliar, the tenth executive Trustee of the temple who served for decades. His son who took over as the Trustee early this year ensured the temple’s longstanding rituals and ceremonies went ahead as usual.
To the pleasant surprise of devotees gathered in front of the temple, statues of the trio of deities were taken out from the inner sanctum through the crowds and placed on the vehicle. “It was really a surprise. sapparam was the biggest surprise for me, unusually big and large,” said Babikaran Subramaniam, 25, a Colombo-based Civil Engineer.
Another ardent devotee of Lord Skanda declared: “I never expected this much of a crowd. This is the biggest crowd I’ve seen.”
“I opted not to mix-and-mingle with the thousands, and instead remained inside the temple,” he said of the sheer volumes of the crowd that gathered to witness the festival after two years.
Special arrangements were put in place by Jaffna Municipal Council and the Police to ensure the festival went ahead smoothly. At least 13 annadhanam – free food stalls – were located around the temple to feed the devotees arriving from various places throughout the day.
At least 350 Police personnel, JMC officials, First Aid teams and student volunteers were deployed across the temple environment to serve the devotees.
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