People began to join the many streams of devotees headed to Sri Veleeswarar Temple and to Sri Kapaleeswarar Temple as early as 7.45 p.m. for the Shivaratri celebrations which began on February 26.
That hour, traffic began to pile up outside the temple on South Mada Street. A hawker here said that she had not seen such large crowds for Shivaratri in recent years.
The scenes were similar at Sri Karaneeswarar Temple and at Sri Theerthapaleeswarar on Dr Natesan Road in Triplicane, a temple that completes the Mylapore Sivan temples circuit.
All temples had made arrangements to streamline the huge inflow of people and there was order inside most temples.
While at some temples, people handed over milk sachets to volunteers to contribute for the abishekam, at others, volunteers took turns to offer light food and refreshments and prasadam at counters located In temple campuses.
In some temples, on a stage there were concerts of nagaswaran or classical/religious music or classical dance by artistes who took turns to perform.
If you were in these temple zones this Wednesday night, you may have also seen small groups of people undertaking their annual tour of the seven Sivan temples in the greater Mylapore zone. The pleasant night and light traffic made their ‘payanam’ for Shivaratri an easy one
