SABARIMALA: The Lord Ayyappa temple here was opened on Sunday for eight days to celebrate niraputhari and Onam festival. Melsanthi Jayaraj Potti opened the sreekovil at 5.30 pm in the presence of thantri Mahesh Mohanaru.
No rituals were performed at the temple in the evening as part of the ongoing practice of the temple. Restrictions on the entry of devotees for darshan continued as part of the prevailing COVID situation.
As part of the restrictions, there is a ceiling of 10,000 devotees for darshan a day and they will have to produce either vaccination certificate after administering two doses or RT-PCR negative certificate on arrival at the entry point at Nilakkal pilgrim transit camp.
The annual niraputhari festival, marking the beginning of harvest season, will be celebrated on Monday. As part of the festival, paddy spikes will be brought to the temple from various parts of the state and neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
To begin with, the procession carrying the paddy spikes led by the melsanthi will be taken out from Lower Thirumuttom of the temple to the sreekovil at 5 am on Monday. On reaching the sreekovil, the thantri will perform poojas on the paddy spikes and distribute them to the devotees at 5:55 am. Kalabhabhishekam will be the special ritual to be performed as part of the niraputhari celebrations.
The annual Onam festival will be celebrated from August 17 to 23. As part of the celebrations, Onasadya will be offered for four days from the first day of Onam on August 20. The devotees will be offered feast on all four days. The temple will be closed on August 23 after athazha pooja and harivarasanam at 9pm.