Pooram Festival in Thrissur

The Thrissur’s Pooram Festival is associated with the caparisoned elephants that symbolize Kerala. Pooram is an annual festival held after the summer harvest. The legend has that in the 18th century AD there was a quarrel among 10 temples about participation in the festival held at Arratupuzha. To finish this dispute, the king (raja) Rama Varma decided to unite these temples and decreed them into one temple festival. Since 1798, it became the largest Pooram festival. The grand Pooram festival was born where participants from 10 temples of Kerala, accompanied by the idols of respective deities, carry the processions on the golden caparisoned elephants.

The Pooram day commences with the wave of joy and excitement at Thrissur Maidan. Eleven Elephants stand in each row and with the sudden beat of the Kobum, Chendas, and elathalams fills the air. Kobums are the wind trumpets and Chendas and Elethalams are the drums, cymbals, etc. With the rigorous and regular beating of the hands of the instruments are moved up and down. 50 selected elephants create an electrifying wave in the silent ambiance. 400, 000 lakh people throng to mark their presence in this humongous ceremony. The roar of millions of people bandies the air. The participants in the procession move there feet with great energy. They tap their feet and bang their heads with immense force. The festivity becomes grander when with the medley of sounds, the priests or leaders or escorts from the 10 villages move the thread chiseled fans in a consecutive manner. The elephants swirl their ears and nose with pride. Approximately 200 meters away from the maidan, the huge clump of 400,000 lakh people could be noticed entering the Vadakkumnathan (Shiva) temple. Madathil Varavu (temple entry) looks  completely packed. The rampant hum of the crowd can be heard while Vedic chants are recited in the temple. The procession of 10 temples deities (idols)are carried into the Vadakkumnathan temple(Shiva temple). All together, this ceremony is named Madathil Varavu(temple entry ceremony), as mentioned in the above lines.

In the trail of successive events, the evening in celebrated with Kuda Mattom, or Umbrella swapping. One row of elephants stands in front row and the other row of elephant’s cramp on the other side. The action begins when the participants a top on the elephants back, exchange the multicolored parasols. The men in their traditional attires lower down their parasols swap them and then raise them in alternative manner. This action is repeated many times, whenever the parasols are moved, the visitors can hear the echoing voice of 4 lakh people. The row of multi colored parasols begins to resemble a Jugalbandi between the exhilarating crowd and the parasols swappers. One team raises a parasol carrying the Lord Krishna idol; the other team repeats the similar activity by raising the idol of Bhagwathi, followed by Ganesha and Shiva respectively. With the sunset, crowd starts easing off. The villagers start doing preparation for the final event and wait keenly till mid night when crackers are going to enlighten the sky.

The final event of the Thrissur Pooram is the fireworks display, the vedikettu at 3am. The crackers bursting ceremony is organized at Swaraj round, the area surrounding the Thekkikandu maidan is spread in a restricted ambit of 1 meter and during the festivity; it brims up to the road end. The visitors at this time should ensure complete safety of their valuables. Besides this, ceremony starting at 3:00 AM fills the air with enthusiasm. The ceremony commences with a sudden boomerang sound, the flower of exploding fire works in the sky can be appraised and the element of excitement is assured to over ride the mind. The whole night fades out amidst the presence of fireworks, pounding sounds and clusters of noise. With every pause, the deep lull exudes the air, surprisingly, the crackers are exploded again. Perhaps, this kind of chain is carried in the loop. By 5:00 AM, as the sun coasts out with its light rays, the fire works are stopped and every one goes back to their normal routine. The whole festivity is carried for 36 hours and finally, ends up in the morning. The travelers are advised to make an advance booking at hotels in Thrissur, as during the peak season all accommodations are booked. To avoid any chaos, Kiomoi offers also offers an advance online booking at best price tags. So move ahead and make your religious tour a memorable experience by making an advance online booking.