THRISSUR: The Guruvayur Devaswom Board is planning to allow marriage ceremonies at the Sree Krishna Temple at nights in view of skyrocketing demand for bookings. Though the devaswom management committee is yet to issue any guidelines for the same or add the required facilities, discussions have been on in this regard for the past few months.
At present, marriages at the temple take place in the morning, usually between 5.30am and 1.30pm. During peak season, which mainly falls during Onam, the temple sees nearly 250 weddings in a single day.
“The devaswom management committee has not taken a final decision on conducting marriage ceremonies at night. However, there are plans to take it up. We sought advice from the thantri on going ahead with the idea and he agreed to it,” said board chairman V K Vijayan.
Guruvayur temple thantri Chennas Dineshan Namboothirippad said marriages ceremonies used to be conducted at the temple at night in the past. “My sister's wedding took place at night. There is nothing wrong in the practice. As per texts, time doesn't matter when we are conducting the ceremonies when the temple is open,” he told TNIE. He said later, when people shifted marriage functions to auditoriums that the time for ceremonies changed.
Hoteliers welcomed the plan. They said since marriage ceremonies are taking place in the morning at present, the rush decreases considerably by afternoon. This will change once weddings are allowed at night too, they said.