You might have seen the viral videos of how Kerala people make way for an ambulance during a religious festival. Those are some reference to the local Pooram scenes. So when it comes to Thrissur Pooram, it is known as the greatest festival of that kind or the pooram.

What is Pooram?

Pooram is a religious festival that takes place yearly in Hindu temples. It is mostly considered as the time the respective deity in the temple coming for a visit the people. Most of the Pooram celebrations, in Thrissur, includes a day where religious comes to the houses of people who are included in the territory of that temple, a day where “Kavadi and music performances happen and the next day where families get together and have a good time.

What Is Thrissur Pooram?

Thrissur pooram is considered the grand festival when it comes to Pooram. It is a three days celebrations with many small poorams from different temples in the Thrissur town area concluding at the Vadakkunnatha temple, at the heart of Thrissur.

This year-old tradition roots to the belief of the Goddesses coming once every year to pay a visit to the God Vishnu and bid Goodbye with a promise of meeting the coming year. All the celebrations that involve musical performances and procession of elephants carrying the deity figures are themed on belief and part of the rituals.

Thrissur Pooram is famous for many celebrations and attracts a huge crowd to Thrissur. It is the time many from around the world come here to watch the famous musicians perform, see their favorite elephants, watch the spectacular fireworks. The whole area of Thrissur Swaraj Round roads will be closed on the days of Pooram for people to easily walk around and attend their favorite part of the Pooram.

Community Support

Even though it is a Hindu festival, everyone in Thrissur considers this festival as their pride. People attend the festival regardless of caste creed or religion. Most institutions remain closed on these days.

Since Thrissur Pooram happens in the summer season, you can see many groups offering water, buttermilk, lemon water on the roads. The events happen in different venues and walking around the round to reach the next venue can get tiring in the hot weather.

The entire Swaraj round will be blocked for vehicles except for Police buses, jeeps, and ambulances. There is medical support available, police within a fixed area to make sure things are in control with such a huge crowd coming in these days.

Events

There are many events that happen at different temple compounds during Thrissur pooram. Few of them are

• Aana chamayam
• Madathil Varavu
• Elanjithara melam
• Thekkotirakkam
• Kudamattam
• Vedikettu [Fireworks]

Madathil Varavu is the ceremony where the Goddess from the Paramekkvu temple gets ready and going to meet the Vadakkunathan” aka Lord Vishnu. This happens during the noontime with elephants carrying the “thidambu”, an arch-shaped piece with the deity on it”.

Elajithara Melam is the musical performance where the famous musicians like “Peruvanam Kuttanmarar” group perform for 3 hours continuously. It is considered prestigious to get a place to perform in Elanjithara melam. It lasts for hours and there are people who come to Thrissur just to attend this performance.

Kudamattam is another colourful competitive event. This happens near the Municipal office road and the compound of Vadakkunnathan temple. Elephants from two sections, Thriuvambadi and Paramekkavu, stand opposite to each other and display their decorated umbrellas. This is one of the main events where more people come to attend. These umbrellas used to be made out of fabric but nowadays they are made out of different materials. Every year, the making of these umbrellas are taken very seriously and competitive, the designs are kept a secret till the time of the display.

After this event, the elephants bid Goodbye by raising their trunk indicating the farewell of the Gods and Goddesses with the promise of meeting next year.

Vedikkettu aka Fireworks

This is one of the spectacular events in Thrissur pooram. Everyone has their own favorite event during Thrissur pooram that they would wait for in the coming years, for me and many it is the Vedikettu. This happens at around 3 AM. Most people come to Thrissur just to witness this, sleep in the swaraj round area for this.

Colours fill the entire sky above swaraj round and it is something indescribable in words. It is different from all the similar fireworks I have ever seen during other festivals. There is nothing else to talk about this, it is just an amazing thing to witness and you should not miss it too.

In 2017, the year I went to attend Thrissur pooram, the government put a ban on the fireworks for safety issues. So, from that year, the firecracker that is comparatively strong are not used. This created a lot of protest from the Pooram lovers.

The next day or the third day is the day is for the Thrissur locals. It is called “Pakal pooram”, where fireworks happen in the morning. Most of the locals go to the temple this day and the visitors leave the town early in the morning. Swaraj round gets opened again for the normal transportation and life comes back to normal.

How to Reach Thrissur

The nearest airport to Thrissur is Cochin International airport. From there, Thrissur is around 54 kms. There are buses, train, and cabs available to Thrissur. There is an airport bus that shuttles to and fro Thrissur and Cochin airport, I think that is the cheap and safe option to commute. The best part is you don’t need to bargain for the rates in this case.

Since Thrissur is in the middle part of Kerala, most buses that going to the northern part from Cochin airport pass through Thrissur. Therefore, the frequency of bus service is also good.

Elephants

Thrissur Pooram is incomplete without mentioning about the elephants in it. Elephants are loved by the majority of the people here. Yes, the noise and fireworks and everything may not be enjoyed by them. But, the intention behind any of this is not bad in the heart of people.

Is Thrissur Pooram Safe For Women To Attend?

The answer is YES with many conditions. 

Thrissur pooram is one of the festivals that attract a lot of people from around the world. Majority of the people who come during this pooram are here only to enjoy the festival. However, there are perverts in the crowd who try to take advantage of crowded places.

Let me share this incident when we were there in the Swaraj round during the fireworks early in the morning. It was me, another girl and one guy, who was not with us when the fireworks started. The place we standing were occupied by families mostly.

Once the fireworks of one side got over, the crowd began to move to witness the fireworks from other section more clearly. The whole place is already very close-packed. Most guys move to another location without causing much trouble. There were a group of guys passing like that and all of them were drunk and touched molested a girl standing next to us.

She shouted back at him and this guy and his friends stopped. He started justifying and the whole scene was getting bad. She said what he did in very crude language and nobody, I mean not a single person around, did anything about it. The conversation ended with the guy with this girl slapping him so hard and then everything went back to normal again.

The thing is there are many perverts who come with the crowd and the majority of the crowd is not going to involve in any fight. So, here are some tips if you are planning to attend Thrissur Pooram as a girl.

• There is police deployed in most places, try to be close to them.
• If you can be with your guy friends or family
• There are dedicated tents for women during events like “Kudamattam”, if you reach early in the ground, you might get a place there.
• Be careful and alert police when you need help, however, during events like fireworks and other crowded times, it becomes very difficult to even move around. So, choose your spot wisely.

But, most men come here, even though drunk and out of their minds, are pretty decent and are here just to enjoy the pooram.

Should You Attend Thrissur Pooram At All?

I never went for Thrissur pooram even though I lived all of my childhood in Thrissur. The main reason was safety, I was warned of the misbehaving of the crowd and we watched the fireworks either from our terrace or stood near Aswani hospital.

(arrangement for the sample fireworks)

In 2016, I and my other girl cousins decided to attend no matter what and went to the round all three days. Attended almost all the events we could including the fireworks at night.

From that I can say, the hype is real. You should attend this festival to feel it. The whole ambiance is positive and high spirits. I am pretty sure once you attend, you will wait for the next year’s pooram for that one favorite event of yours. I still remember how special it was to see those blue lights coming down from the sky felt like being inside a 3D movie.

To Conclude about Thrissur Pooram,

All I can say is, you should experience it to know the greatness of this event.

Location: [//]:# (!steemitworldmap 10.525983 lat 76.213981 long thrissur d3scr)

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