Sabarimala Temple fest begins Tuesday

SABARIMALA: The hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa was opened on Monday evening for the annual 10-day festival, slated to begin on Tuesday.Melsanthi G Balamurali opened the sreekovil at 5.30 pm in the presence of thantri Kandararu Maheswararu.  As a practice, hardly any ritual was held in the evening. Kodiyettu CeremonyThe thantri would conduct the kodiyettu ceremony, marking the beginning of the festival, between 9.30 am  and 10 am in the presence of melsanthi, Sabarimala devaswom executive officer M Satheeshkumar said.UtsavabaliThe ritual, to be performed for the Hill Gods of Lord Ayyappa, would be held at 11 am on all eight days of the festival from March 28.Devotees would have the facility for utsavabali darsan of Lord Ayyappa at 2 p.m. on the ritual days.Sreebhoothabali-VilakkinezhunnellippuThe five-day Sreebhoothabali-Vilakkinezhunnellippu, would be held at 9 p.m. from March 30 to April 3.PallivettaPallivetta, the ritual to be conducted on the ninth day of the festival,  would be held at Saramkuthi on April 4.As part of the ritual, the pallivetta procession would be taken out from sopanam to Saramkuthi at 9.30 p.m.ArattuArattu, the ceremony marking the concluding ritual of the festival, would be held at arattu kadavu in the Pampa river opposite Lord Ganapathi temple at 11.30 a.m. on April 5. As part of the ceremony, the arattu procession, carrying the thidambu of Lord Ayyappa on a caparisoned elephant, would be taken out from sopanam at 9 am. After arattu ceremony, the return procession would begin from Pampa Lord Ganapathi temple at 4 p.m.On reaching sopanam, the festival would conclude after kodiyiraku, valiyakanikka, athazha pooja and Harivarasanam at 10 pm.