Bible Tower attracts tourists in large numbers

The tallest Bible tower of Asia, attached to the Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Dolours here, has become one of the major pilgrim tourist attractions in the state, visited by people from around the world including Europe.

According to Fr George Manadan, Rector and Vicar of the Basilica, the church founded in 1925 was one of the biggest Christian shrines in Asia covering a plinth area of 25,000 sq ft.
The Bible tower commands a height of 260 ft and about 500 to 600 pilgrims visit the Basilica and the tower daily, Fr Manadan told a press meet on Thursday.

The four-day long annual festival of the Basilica would begin on Friday with a high mass led by Major Archbishop Baselios Mar Cleemis of the Syro Malankara Catholic Church.

Kumbalanghi project - Tourism Village in the country

Even as Kumbalanghi, arguably the first-ever model tourism village in the country, is poised to scale new heights of glory, confusion remains about the implementation part of the project.The Union Ministry of Tourism is all set to promote Kumbalanghi as one of the leading destinations in one or two-day packages along with the Incredible India campaign.

But the developments on the ground do not match with the vision those at the helm have.The District Collector, in his capacity as the nodal officer for the model tourism project being implemented with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) funds, has issued a stop memo for construction activities at a resort in the village.

However, the village panchayat gave green signal for construction of 56 cottages, perched on pillars set in water bodies. “Such a construction activity can only be allowed after proper study by aquaculture experts,” said Collector A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish.The Union Ministry, he said, was very particular in conserving the pristine rural charm of the village. Any activity contrary to that would lead to re-thinking about being included in the Incredible India campaign.

Foreigners arrive for Kalpathy fete

The ‘Devarathams’ (temple chariots) will roll through the streets of Kalpathy ‘Agraharams’ (Brahmin villages) from Wednesday to mark the beginning of the famous Kalpathy Car Festival.

The 10-day Carnatic music festival organised as part of the Car Festival ended here on Tuesday. A number of well known carnatic vocalists and instrumentalists enthralled the music lovers during the last 10 days. The festival is getting popular within the country and outside. Large number of foreign tourists are visiting Kalpathy.

On Tuesday a team of 13 presspersons from the U.S. arrived at Kalpathy and they will be here for a couple of days to cover the festival. The ‘rathas’ will set out on Grama Pradikshinam around 10 a.m. on Wednesday. After going round all the four villages of Kalpathy, they would return to the base around sunset.


‘Pradakshinam’

On the first day of the festival, the deities from the Viswanathaswamy temple would be taken out and installed in the three cars, one for the main deity, Sree Viswanathaswami, and consort, Goddess Parvathi; the second for Vigneswara and the third for Subramaniaswamy.

On the second day, the deities of Manthakara Mahaganapathy of New Kalpathy will start at 9 a.m. On the final day, deities of Mahaganapathy and Lakshmynarayana Perumal will be taken around. In the evening, the ‘rathas’ will move from Chathapuram and Old Kalpathy and move through the streets and return to Chathapuram village and Old Kalpathy at 8 p.m. to mark the end of the festival.


Social significance

The special features of the festival are the rights of the Scheduled Castes to take the deities from the ‘rathas’ at the Viswanathaswami temple on arrival at the base and taking them to the portals of the temple where an ‘Abhishekam’ is performed strictly according to Vedic rites and the deities are once again adorned and decorated for procession on the night of the concluding day.


While the rituals inside the temple and the mode of worship are strictly according to Tamil Brahmin culture, the celebrations outside like drum-beating, decoration of the ‘rathas’ etc., are based in Kerala style.

Festivals - Series I

Onam

Rooted in the myth of the demon-king Mahabali, Onam is easily the biggest and the most popular festival of Kerala. It falls in the Malayalam month of Chingam (Aug-Sept). It is the harvest festival of Kerala. During the ten day-long festival, Keralites, irrespective of caste, creed and religion, Children go around collecting flowers and decorate them in the front portion of the house in various designs and patterns to welcome their benefactor and king.Legend has it that Mahabali, the erstwhile ruler of Kerala who was banished to the nether-world by Lord Vishnu under the guise of the Brahmin boy, Vamana, visits his subjects on Thiruvonam.

It's a ten day-long festival and the most important days of the Onam festival are Uthradom and Thiruvonam days. On the latter, a grand feast is held in every home. Onam also provides an occasion for family get-together among the Keralites.


Vishu


This day on which Vishu falls is the astronomical new year day and it is celebrated as such. The Malayalis believe that the fortunes for the year depend upon the nature of the object one sees first in the morning of Vishu Day. In order to fulfill the desire to look at the auspicious articles, they prepare a 'Kani' (anomen) on the previous day for seeing in the next morning. In circular bell-metal vessel known as 'Urule' some raw rice is put and over it a folded newly washed cloth is spread.

The Kani includes gold ornament, white cloth, a measure of rice or paddy, bell metal mirror, flowers of the Konna tree (Cussia fistula), halved jack fruits, halved coconuts, yellow cucumber, and two standing oil lamps emitting sparkling light their eyes. Two coconut halves containing oil and lighted wicks are also placed in the vessel which illuminate the articles inside it. A bell-metal lamp filled with coconut oil is kept burning by the side of the vessel. At the dawn, the Malayali's begin the first day of the Year by waking up in front of Kani.

Another interesting features of this day are Kaayi neetal where the elder members in the family gift money to the younger ones.

Malayalam web site for Kerala Tourism

Kerala Tourism on Friday launched a new web site in Malayalam to provide a better understanding to the new generation and Non-Resident Keralites of the art and culture of the State.

The web site (http://malayalam.keralatourism.org) was launched by Tourism Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan in the presence of Kerala Tourism Development Corporation chairman Cherian Philip and Secretary, Kerala Tourism, V. Venu at a function in the Secretariat.This is the sixth site being launched by Kerala Tourism. The other sites are in French, Italian, Spanish, German and English.

These are intended to attract tourists to the State. The work for launching a web site in Hindi has commenced.The newly launched web site has 13 sections.