It is an annual Hindu Temple festival in the Kalpathy village of Palakkad district in Kerala state, south India. The festival is at the Sri Visalakshi Sametha Sri Viswanatha Swamy temple where the deities are Lord Siva and goddess Parvathi.
The annual ten day chariot festival is conducted during the month of November. Vedic recitals and cultural programmes are held in the temple during the first four days of the festival. During this time, 5 rathas of the 5 deities of Kalpathy village come together and circumvent the village in a grand procession.
The Kalpathy car festival is organised annually from November 8 to 16, it is a festival of unity to preserve the traditions of past. It has become a spectacular cultural extravaganza with unique temple chariots and Carnatic music concerts by maestros attracting people from far and wide. The festival is centred on the Sree Viswanatha Swamy . The Kalpathy car festival is one of the biggest festivals in India, next only to the famous Puri Jagannath Swamy temple car festival in Orissa.
The elegantly decorated temple chariots trundle their way through the streets of the Agraharams of Kalpathy, it is an unforgettable experience. The chariots are wonderfully engraved and sculptured, representing the stories from the Hindu mythology. The last three days of the festival are meant for rolling of decorated chariots through the streets. On the first day, three cars of Kalpathy temple each decorated with flowers and flags containing deities Lord Siva and Parvathy, Lord Vighneshwara and Lord Subrahmanya are drawn through the streets day-long.
Devotees from all streets of Palakkad get involved themselves in drawing the chariots to get blessings of Gods. It is believed that pulling the chariots will wash off all the sins for a lot of generations.
Even elephants provide additional strength to push the mighty chariot forward.
On the final day, deities of Chathapuram temple and Old Kalpathy temple are also placed in their respective decorated cars and taken out on the procession escorted by the traditional festival music of Kerala ‘Panchavadyam’. The five cars circumvent the villages gloriously pouring the blessings of gods everywhere during their ‘gramapradakshinam’. The rendezvous of all these cars at their meeting point is called ‘rathasangamam’ that makes the devotees spell bound for some time. This spectacular sight of five cars coming together with the deities placed inside amidst Vedic chants and festival music is a soul stirring extravaganza.
By sun set, all the chariots return back to their respective temples. The deities are then taken out of the chariots and Abhishekam (a religious ritual) is being performed. They are decorated again and taken out in florally decorated palanquins on a procession by midnight. The palanquins then return back to their temples at dawn on the first day of the Tamil month of Karthigai.
The main sponsors for this year’s function were Bhima Jewellers and Ramraj vaishitis ,who had also lighted up the whole village with vibrant lights.
There are a variety of shops put up all around the temple premises and on the streets of the villages providing people with a wonderful shopping opportunity under one roof and these shops attract a large crowd from nearby villages too. They add to the essence of this festivity and are commonly known as THERU KADAI.
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