Nallur Festival

The 25 day Nallur festival is Jaffna's biggest event, with daily processions around Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil, a giant chariot day and devotees performing kavadi.

The Nallur festival (Mahotsavam) is the biggest event of the year in Jaffna. For 25 days, usually from late July into August or early September, Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil holds daily ceremonies for Lord Murugan, and people come from across Sri Lanka and from Tamil communities around the world.

Each day, the deity is carried out of the temple on a different vahana (a decorated vehicle in the shape of an animal, a bird or a mythical figure) and taken in procession around the outer streets, with drums, nadaswaram music and thousands of devotees following. The temple is famous for its punctuality: the poojas and processions start exactly on time, every day.

The festival builds up to its biggest days near the end. The Manjam and Sapparam festival nights bring huge, lit up processional structures, and on the Ther (chariot) day, a giant wooden chariot carrying Murugan is pulled through the streets by hundreds of devotees on thick ropes. The next morning is the Theertham, the water cutting ritual at the temple pond, which closes the festival.

You will see devotees performing kavadi, rolling around the temple in fulfilment of vows, and carrying out acts of devotion with skewers and hooks.

Men must remove their shirts to enter the temple, and everyone takes off their shoes. Rooms in Jaffna fill up during the festival weeks, so book early.

The present temple dates from the 1700s, when Ragunatha Maapaana Mudaliyar, a shroff in the Dutch administration, won permission to rebuild it after an earlier temple was destroyed by the Portuguese in 1621. His descendants still look after the temple today. The towering gopuram and clock towers you see now were added much later, through the 1900s.

Even if you can't stay for the whole festival, try to time a visit for the chariot day or one of the big evening processions near the end. Arrive early to find a spot along the outer streets, and expect crowds that are dense but orderly. Photography is fine outside, but keep your camera away inside the temple.

At a glance

When: Usually in August
Duration: 25 days
Venue: Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil, Jaffna
Organizer: Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil
Entry: Free