Sunday, May 3, 2009

the festival of festivals start today!!!


This is gona be a loooong post. Those who does not have the patience to read the post may watch the three videos published towards the end of the post. The videos are narrative. Start with the first cos the videos are in order.




Pooram is an annual temple festival held in central Kerala (Thrissur, parts of Palakkad and Malappuram) after the summer harvest. Most pooram festivals have at least one ornately decorated elephant being paraded in the procession taken out of the temple precincts. Thrissur Pooram is the annual temple festival of the town of Thrissur in Kerala, India. It is one of the most colourful temple festival of Kerala which attracts large masses of devotees and spectators from all parts of the State and even outside.

Thrissur Pooram is celebrated at the premises of the Vadakkunnathan Temple, situated on a hillock (Thekkinkadu maidan) right in the centre of the city, on the Pooram day in the month of Medom (April-May). Processions of richly caparisoned elephants accompanied by percussion ensembles from various neighbouring temples culminate at the Vadakumnathan temple. The most impressive processions are those Thriuvambadi Bhagavathy from the Thiruvambadi Sri Krishna Temple and the Paramekkavu Bhagavathi from Paramekkavu temple. The celebrations which last for over 36 hours includes parasol displays and firework shows.

Thrissur is best known for its mammoth Pooram Festival, which is the most colourful and spectacular temple festival of Kerala. Thrissur Pooram, attracts large masses of devotees and spectators form all parts of the State and even outside.The legends and myths behind each festival of Kerala are many, varied and equally interesting. Since the word pooram literally means a group or a meeting, it was believed that every year the dynastic gods and goddesses of neighbouring province met together for a day of celebration. This usually happened on the pooram asterism of one of the spring months.

The gods and their entourage arrived for the meeting on colourfully decorated tuskers. Even today, the converging of these divine processions at the festival venue is an awe inspiring sight. The pooram draws to a close with mind-blowing fireworks displays in the evening and in the wee hours of the next morning.

Celebrated Malayalam month of Medom (April-May) in every year.it consists of processions of richly caparisoned elephants from various neighbouring temples to the Vadakunnatha temple, Thrissur. The most impressions are those from the Krishna temple at Thiruvambadi and the Devi temple at Paramekkavu. Pooram is an assemblage of suburban deities before the presiding deity at the Siva temple in down town Thrissur. The Pooram celebration is held at the Thekkinkadu grounds.

Thrissurpooram was introduced by Sakthan Thampuran (1775- 1790), , the Maharaja of erstwhile Kochi state. The Pooram festival is also well-known for the magnificent display of fireworks. It is celebrated by two rival groups representing the two divisions of Thrissur Paramekkavu and Thiruvambadi vying with each other in making the display of fireworks grander and more colourful. Each group is allowed to display a maximum of fifteen elephants and all efforts are made by each party to secure the best elephants in South India and the most artistic parasols, several kind which are raised on the elephants during the display. The commissioning of elephants and parasols is done in the utmost secrecy by each party to excel the other. Commencing in the early hours of the morning, the celebrations last till the break of dawn, the next day.

There is a little history to the festival which says that before Thrissur Pooram, a one-day temple festival was held at Aarattupuzha, 12 km south of the Thrissur. Temples located in and around Thrissur used to regularly participate in the ceremonies. All was going well until one day, chief of the Peruvanam area of Cherpu denied access to other temples to uphold the supremacy of Namboodiri. Namboodiris is the dominant brahmin caste in Kerala. Prince Raja Varma, the architect of Thrissur, decided to put an end to Namboodiri supremacy and assuage the wounded confidence of his subjects. Rama Varma undertook the task of renovating Vadakunnathan temple, which was earlier bounded by high walls and was controlled by Namboodiris. He took on himself to look after the temple and made it open to all. He invited other temples with their deities to Thrissur to pay obeisance to Lord (Sri) Vakunnathan, the deity of the Vadakunnathan temple. The Prince also directed the main temples of Thrissur, Thiruvampadi and Pamamekkavu, which had never been under the control of Namboodiris to help other participating temples. It is said that the Prince also chalked the schedule of the 36 hours festival. The Pooram was thus made open to one and all. This also explains the secular nature of the festival.



60 comments:

enchantinganki said...

mast pics hai..
i have been thr ..i guess..

kal exam hai, will read the post tomm..

wish me luck..

cyaa!

enchantinganki said...

aree me fishttttttttttt!!

prize milega kya??

m so happy...

Anil Sawan said...

anki, yey,kal exmas hein?? all the very best :) kal aake bolna ki achi gayi exam, okies??

Anonymous said...

hey.. thanks for visiting my page
i will write the next part soon

follow me if u like my page enough :)
god bless!
tc! :)

Anil Sawan said...

yey anki, you first :) exam resilt leke aavo, prize ke bare mein sochenge :)

Anil Sawan said...

pinkz, u r already being followed dear :)

Richa said...

wow!!
thnx for sharing with us.. its a pity tht we dont know about the festivites celebrated with such gr8 pomp and show within our own country.. but thnx again for letting us know :)

Anil Sawan said...

richa , any time grl. watch the videos, its worth the time :) u have a great week ahead. god bless ya.

Anonymous said...

wow it was sooo sooo informative.. our country's culture is so rich! :D and lovely pics..

i appreciate the way you love kerela and write about its festivals.... i am so proud of you.. :)

Sneha Shrivastava said...

I am watching the video and enjoying the festival.Thanks for sharing with us.:)

Dhanya said...

Aaaah... did you know my bro-in-law who stays in Dubai comes down to Kerala specially for thrissur pooram ? :P

Anil Sawan said...

dhanya, really?? i shud learn from him then :(

btw, did ya pay a visit??

Anil Sawan said...

kajal, i miss kerala so much :( u liked it?? its in thrissur, u shud like it :P

Anil Sawan said...

sneha, u liked it? :) its a pleasure to share moments of joy :) u take care grl, have fun :)

Phoenix said...

hey thats a great informative post.. now im truly wishing i get thru MASCOM in kottayam.. so that hopefully i ll be able to savour poonam :)


happy poonam to you.. [i hope u can say that... :)]

Anil Sawan said...

raka, ofcourse you cud say tht, but its "pooram" and not "poonam" :)

u wana join Manorama School of Communication? what course?

Margaret said...

Sounds and looks like an amazing festival Anil!

Thanks for sharing it with us "outsiders".

India's brilliant for celebrating it's wonderful, colourful festivals and keeping tradition alive.

Amritorupa Kanjilal said...

anil- i had read about this festival in some novels but i hardly knew anything about it. thank u so much for the lively description and the very vivid pictures. a very happy pooram to you :)

tinkerbell said...

wow!! the other day i was jus wondering what the elaphant head dresses are for, when i saw a pic in the HT.. had never even heard of this b4...

Pallav said...

hey quite informative post it is...
u knw i always have urge to knw th diffrent rituals n festivals....

the pics r soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo... beuatiful tht my 'o' are not enough to tell mu ..
especailly the Temple one..
i loveddddddddddd it....

Happy Poonam to u...

May God bless u n....

us....
hehehe....

Cheers :)
Pallav

Vaisey wht abt the food.... u dint told us...
tht is also important...

hehehe...

Amritorupa Kanjilal said...

And btw, VERY groovy pic dude... loved it :)

vinny said...

hey!
very beautiful yaar..i am proud of u..the way u have promoted Kerala culture ..commendable work mate..keep it up!

Kartz said...

Ah,,, Even more reason to swell with pride that we are Indian. :)

Awesome pics, bro'... Ve read up on this before though. Nonetheless, it always is euphoric when one reads about such beautiful culture. :)

Thanks for the share!

Peace.

sujata sengupta said...

Thanks for sharing the festivities..If you think about it, Our country is the riches in its festivities and colours. And it is probably these that binds us to the country. Wherever in the world we might be, during the festivals, the heart does want to be close to home.Thanks again for the lovely videos.

enchantinganki said...

exam was ok..i did much better from my expectation!!

neways, i have postcards of this festival, heard of it long back wen i was in 5th class.

It feels good re re-collect those memories....

thanks for sharing this!!

Rià said...

wow!!those were some amazing pics!!and thanks for enlightening us abt this festival. I dint even knw such a festival existed!!

Rakesh Vanamali said...

Brilliant pictures and an awesome writeup! I hope to make it for the Pooram someday!

ARUNA said...

OMG amazing pics......looks like a very big event!!!!! How do the police control so much crowd!!!!!!!!!

bondgal_rulz said...

36-hour festival ???? I like teh sound of it!! he he

And nice colorful pics ya. :)

Cheers

P.S. The address of C'est La Vie has been changed to www.thenefariousangel.blogspot.com. Please make the necessary changes in your feeds and do visit the new place. :)

Scattered Thoughts... said...

pardon me hero.. I really tried reading it but couldnt :) hope you wont mind.. and BTW, ye snap kya shadi ke liye click karvaya hai kya ?

Scattered Thoughts... said...

been said that and after watching the videos.. I really think, watching it live with your eyes must be a fascinating experience.. I will prefer it that ways I suppose and you can be my (or our, depending on situation ;) guide for that :D

Keshi said...

Interesting festival and very beautiful pics Sawan!

Keshi.

Me said...

I never knw abt this festival.. thanks for sharing these wonderful pics and information.

Anonymous said...

Long post indeed but a good one!
Even I didnt know so much about it even after the place being my native!
Thanks for sharing this :)

Anonymous said...

And yeah,the pics are great :)

Veni said...

Nice pics and video....thanks for the detailed info : )

Anil Sawan said...

Margaret, its a pleasure dear :)India indeed is brilliant for celebrating so much varience of colors :) u take care :)

Anil Sawan said...

Amrita, thnx dear :) u have a wonderful time too :) and visit kerala some day :)

Anil Sawan said...

tinkerbell, hehe, u shud actually see it live. its awesome. pay a visit to kerala once, it wud be memorable!! :)

Anil Sawan said...

Pallav, thnx so much bro :) food aint a major thing in this festival..

Anil Sawan said...

Amrita, thnx dear :)

Anil Sawan said...

Vinnie darlin, thnx dear.. let the kerala govt see this comment and make me part of the tourism dept :) lol

Anil Sawan said...

Kartz, bro, cheers for the culutre we share :)

Anil Sawan said...

Sujata, its a pleasure dear :) u have loadz of fun :)

Anil Sawan said...

Anki, good :) u shud be visiting kerala :) its a festival worth a visit :)

Anil Sawan said...

Ria, hehe, theer are a lot of festivals we are not aware of. i am sure you celebrate many days which I wudn be aware of!! share the joy :)

Anil Sawan said...

Rakesh, its worth a visit bro :) thnx for ur luvly words :)

Anil Sawan said...

Aruna, hehe, u under estimated Kerala Police, lol :) Come home on day, Kerala is worht a vacation :)

Anil Sawan said...

isha, yeah 36 hours festival :)i got the new adre grl :) ill be ter :)

Anil Sawan said...

maheep, no worries bro. i know u r busy, u are welcome to watch the video, tht wudn take much time :)

Anil Sawan said...

bro, u awtched it! :) yes, i cud definitely be your guide , but its advisable tht kids stay away from all the noise, so plan the trip before he/she comes :)

Anil Sawan said...

Keshi, thnx swthrt :)

Anil Sawan said...

Harshita, it was a pleasure grl :)

Anil Sawan said...

Meera, lol, arodum parayanda native aayitum ithonnum ariyilla enne :)

Anil Sawan said...

Meera, thnx sweety :)

Anil Sawan said...

Veni, Thnx grl :)

Devilish Angel said...

Thank you for the post. I don't know much about our culture. This is very interesting. I heard Kerala is a beautiful place. I should visit it some time, don't know when :(

Crazy Blogger said...

what a colourful blog! . just loved it

Anil Sawan said...

Angel, Kerala is a place worth a visit, come during june-december. if u are planing for june-aug, u shud love rain cos it wud be raining cats n dogs :)

Anil Sawan said...

manjari, thnx grl :)