‘Aarattu’ festival celebrated with ceremonial grandeur at Padmanabha Swamy temple

Thiruvananthapuram (ANI): The traditional ‘Aarattu’ festival was celebrated with pomp and ceremonial splendor at the Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday. The specialty of the ‘Aarattu’ at Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple is that the heads of the royal family of the erstwhile Kingdom of Travancore still walk with the idols of the deities in their traditional attire during the procession.

The idols are taken for the holy bath with a grand procession that leaves everyone spellbound with its grandeur. Later, the idols are taken to Shankumugham beach and given a purifying bath in the sea. The Arattu festival is also celebrated with great pomp at the Sri Krishnaswamy Temple in Ambalapuzha, although it does not match the celebrations at the Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram.

Apart from the traditional sacred bathing of the idol, an important feature of the festival celebrated in this temple is that ‘Ambalapuzha Palpayasam’, a sweet dish, is always offered to the Lord. Aarattu Festival is celebrated twice a year. It is celebrated once in the month of October to November and again in the month of March to April. On both occasions the festival lasts for ten days.

‘Aarattu’ is an annual ritual performed during Hindu temple festivals in Kerala, in which a priest bathes the idol of a deity by immersing it in a river or temple tank. After the deities are bathed, palpayasam (sweet pudding) is offered to them.