Heavy rush in Guruvayur; Celebrations also underway at Aranmula Parthasarathy Temple, Sri Krishna Jayanthi celebrated today 

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Today is Sri Krishna Jayanti. Various celebrations including a procession will be held across the state. The Ashtami Rohini festival has begun at the Guruvayur temple. Various celebrations have been organized at the temple with pujas, celebrations, processions and folk arts.

The Devaswom Board has informed that possible measures have been taken to provide darshan to all those who come to the temple due to the large crowd of devotees. The Ashtami Rohini at the temple have begun with Nirmalya darshan at 3 am. More than 200 weddings will be held in Guruvayur today. As part of the security arrangements, VIP and special darshans will be restricted.

Extensive celebrations have also been organized at the Aranmula Parthasarathy temple as part of Ashtami Rohini. Devaswom Minister V N Vasavan will inaugurate the samooha sadya at 10:30 am. People from 52 palliyodams will also arrive at the temple premises. The sadya is prepared with dishes including Ambalapuzha Palpayasam. The rice is prepared with 501 paras of rice. The sadya is served to the devotees on the north and west sides of the temple and to the devotees on the south side. The curd required for the sadya was brought to the temple from Chenappadi in a traditional procession.

Meantime, a grand procession will be held in the capital city today in which children will dress up in Krishna costumes on the occasion of Sri Krishna Jayanti. This is a fascinating sight where children of different ages will march in various costumes related to Sri Krishna. The processions will start from eight centers at 4 pm. All these will converge in front of the Maha Ganapathi temple in Palayam. The grand procession will then end at the Putharikandam ground in front of the Pazhavangadi temple in East Fort via Statue, Secretariat and overbridge. The processions will start from the Corporation Office, Muscat Hotel Junction, Nandavanam Road, Reserve Bank Junction, Jubilee Hospital Junction, MLA Hostel and the road in front of the university headquarters.

The Mahashobhayatra will be inaugurated by Aswathi THirunal Gowri Lakshmibai. Balagokulam State President R Prasanna Kumar will deliver the Sree Krishna Jayanti message. At the conclusion of the procession, sweets prepared by the Attukal Temple Trust will be served to children as prasadam. General convener K V Radhakrishnan informed that all arrangements for the procession have been completed.