Sabarimala's Makaravilakku festival to be held on Friday

The Makaravilakku festival of Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Kerala will be held on Friday.

Officials of the Travancore Devaswom Board that manages the temple said that up to 75,000 pilgrims would be able to witness the 'Makaravilakku', a lamp that glows on the mountain ranges, and the 'Makarajyothi' star that appears in the evening.

The Thiruvabharanam' (sacred ornaments) to be worn by the deity is being brought from Pandalam Palace where lord Ayyappa was believed to have spent childhood days. The procession will reach the temple by Friday evening and the 'deeparadhana' will follow.

Temple sources said that owing to the surge in Covid cases there was a decline in the number of pilgrims over the last few days. Moreover, there were reports of a cluster of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 cluster in Pathanamthitta district where the temple is situated.

The Ayyaappa temple that used to get a revenue of up to Rs 200 crore during the two-month-long pilgrimage received only around Rs 15 crore during the last pilgrimage due to the fall in pilgrims. But this time the temple so far got revenue of around Rs 125 crore as the pilgrimage is about to end. Though there are around 12,440 temples under the Travancore Devaswom Board, revenue from Sabarimala is the major source of income for the board.

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