Madurai Chithirai Therottam 2027: Detroit, Michigan

Madurai Chithirai Therottam, the chariot festival, is the eleventh day of the Madurai Chithirai Thiruvizha, the morning after the divine wedding.

The story. Newly married, Sundareswarar and Meenakshi go out together to be seen by all the people of their city. The Therottam is the wedding procession of the divine couple, given to every devotee who could not fit into the temple for the Thirukalyanam.

At the temple. In the early morning Sundareswarar with Priyavidai mounts the great chariot and Meenakshi the second, smaller chariot. Thousands of devotees pull them with thick ropes around the four Masi streets that ring the old city, to cries of "Hara Hara Sankara" and "Meenakshi Sundareswara". In the evening the deities return on the Sapthavarna Chapram, the seven-coloured canopy.