Chennai, Aug 24:
As many as 1,200 weddings were held at 180 major temples across Tamil Nadu on a single day on Sunday, marking the first auspicious wedding day of the Avani month and drawing huge crowds of couples, relatives and friends to temple premises.
The unusually large number of weddings led to heavy crowds at several popular temples, with devotees who had come for darshan facing congestion amid the large gathering of wedding parties.
The first auspicious wedding day of Avani is traditionally considered an important occasion for conducting marriages, and several major temples across the State witnessed a sharp increase in the number of ceremonies.
In Chennai, the Vadapalani Murugan Temple saw wedding ceremonies from the morning. Couples completed the rituals in designated marriage halls before proceeding for darshan of the presiding deity.
The temple premises were consequently crowded with the parents, relatives and friends accompanying the newly married couples.
Several major Murugan temples across the State also witnessed a large number of marriages.
At Tiruttani, one of the six abodes of Lord Murugan, 30 weddings were held. At Tirupparankundram, the first of the six abodes, 101 couples got married.
The Devanathaswamy Temple at Tiruvanthipuram in Cuddalore district witnessed the highest number of weddings at a single temple, with 136 marriages conducted on the day.
At Tiruchendur, 50 marriages were held, while 64 couples got married at the Thiruvavinankudi Temple in Palani.
The Vayalur Murugan Temple near Tiruchy recorded 60 weddings, while around 50 marriages took place at the Samayapuram Mariamman Temple.
At Swamimalai, 35 couples got married, while 51 weddings were conducted at the Arunachaleswarar Temple in Tiruvannamalai.
The Salem region witnessed particularly heavy wedding activity. Around 100 couples were married at the Sugavaneswarar Temple, 64 at the Belur Thanthondreeswarar Temple in Vazhapadi and 61 at the Karapuranaathar Temple in Uthamacholapuram.
Together, 279 marriages were conducted in Salem district alone.
Namakkal district recorded another 108 marriages.
Other popular temples also saw a high number of ceremonies. The Vadapalani temple recorded 61 weddings, while 60 couples were married at the Kundrathur Subramaniyaswamy Temple and 75 at the Tiruporur Kandaswamy Temple.
An official of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department said the 1,200 marriages were conducted across 180 major temples falling under the department’s 11 administrative zones.
The ceremonies generated revenue of Rs 13,98,527 for the temples, the official said.
The concentration of marriages on a single auspicious day resulted in a festive atmosphere across temple towns, with decorated marriage halls and large groups of relatives accompanying the couples.
However, the influx also created difficulties for ordinary devotees seeking darshan. At some temples, the large number of wedding parties and their accompanying relatives occupied significant portions of the temple premises.
The rush highlights the challenge faced by popular temples on auspicious days, when regular worshippers and wedding parties converge at the same time.
The Avani season is traditionally associated with a large number of weddings, and temples remain among the preferred venues for families seeking to conduct marriages in a religious setting.
The scale of Sunday’s ceremonies demonstrates the continuing popularity of temple weddings in Tamil Nadu, while also underlining the need for crowd-management arrangements on days when hundreds of marriages are scheduled simultaneously.
437 weddings at Guruvayur
A large number of weddings were also held at the Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple in Kerala.
As many as 437 couples got married there on the same auspicious day. The number was higher than the 334 weddings recorded at the temple on September 8, 2024.
The simultaneous ceremonies across Tamil Nadu and Guruvayur turned the auspicious day into one of the busiest wedding occasions of the season, bringing thousands of families and devotees to major temples.