Guruvayur Festival; The annual Guruvayur festival is in months of Febuary-March, as per Malayalam calendar and zodiac signs. The festival is for 10 days. The festival kicks off with Great Elephant Race, where selected 10 or 15 elephants of Guruvayur temple will race from Manjualla (a baniyan tree located nearly 1 kilometer from temple gate) to the temple. The first elephant who enters the temple gate and complete 3 rounds inside the inner-layer of temple will be adjourned as winner. Winning elephant wins the right of holding deity for processions for all days during festival, apart from a special feast. Large number of tourists attend the opening day of festival, to watch the Elephant race, which is a feast to eyes. Special feasts are arranged for devotees on all festival days.
Guruvayur Ekadesi; This is one of the main festivals of temple, held on Ekadeshi day of month of November, where the temples are illuminated with more than 10000 lamps. A week before the Ekadeshi, the Vilakku or Lamp festival commences, where devotees or various associations sponsor lighting of all lamps of the temple.
Chembai Sangeetholsavam; The musical feast is the highlight of Guruvayur Ekadeshi day, where more than 1200 musicians all over the country performs classical music performances. For a week prior to Ekadeshi, the musical festival starts, though the main highlight is on Ekadeshi where group performances of all leading musicians happen. The music festival ends with grand recital of Pancharatnakireethanam (a rare classical note). Several music lovers all over the country, visit to hear the grand recitals.
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Guruvayoor Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
