THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the first time, Kumarapuram Koyikkal Palliyara Bhagavathy did not use an elephant for the ‘parayeduppu’ ceremony which was held on Monday, the last day of the temple’s annual festival that began on April 12. Instead, the deity was carried inside a specially-made palanquin. On Monday, the temple set another example. It did away with the customary fireworks.
“We convened an emergency meeting on the day after the Paravur tragedy and unanimously decided to prohibit any kind of fireworks for the annual festival this year,” said Mr Ramachandran Pillai, the president of the Temple Renovation Samithi.
Traditionally, there will be a minor fireworks display at the start of the ‘parayeduppu’ ceremony. Certain colonies or areas along the ‘three and a half’-kilometre radius that the temple serves, too, explode crackers as the ‘parayeduppu’ procession approaches. Finally, when the deity returns to the temple, there will be a boisterous pyrotechnic blast. All this has now been prohibited.
“Though we have prohibited fireworks only for this year, we want to extend the ban in the coming years,” Mr Pillai said. “Many families, especially those near the temple, have in the earlier years complained about the fireworks. But we were just continuing with a tradition,” he added.
Avoiding the elephant has already paid dividends. “We could start the ‘parayeduppu’ on time, unlike during earlier years when we had to wait for the elephant to arrive. What’s more, we will be able to complete the ‘parayeduppu’ within 24 hours as is mandated by rituals,” Mr Pillai said. When an elephant was used, the procession used to spill over into the next day.
If the Paravur tragedy had prompted the fireworks ban, it was a request made by the Thiruvananthapuram chapter of Maneka Gandhi’s People for Animals (PFA) that goaded temple authorities to stop using elephants.
