SABARIMALA: The four-day Padi pooja ritual, the first time during the Mandala-Makaravilakku festival, began at the Sabarimala temple here on Wednesday.

The ritual, which began after deeparadhana, was performed under the leadership of thantri Kandararu Brahmadathan in the presence of melsanthi Arunkumar Nampoothiri.

The hour-long ritual, which began with the lighting of traditional lamps at each of the 18 Holy Steps, concluded with performing ‘aarati’ by the thantri at each step.

The five-day Malikappuram procession which began on Tuesday, continued on Wednesday. The procession, which began from Malikappuram after athazha pooja at 9:30 pm, went in front of the Holy Steps, and returned to Malikappuram at 10:30 pm.

On the concluding day of the procession on January 18, the procession will go up to Saramkuthy instead of near Holy Steps and will return to Malikappuram at 11 pm. The customary procession of Ambalapuzha and Alangad petta thullal teams was conducted here on Wednesday.

The temple will be closed at 6 am on January 20 after the customary darshan by the representative of Pandalam Valiyaraja, and the Thiruvabharanam procession’s return journey to Pandalam.

Virtual queue regn, spot bookings available till Jan 19

The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) on Wednesday said that the spot booking counters for darshan will be open till January 19 along with the virtual queue registration. According to TDB, spot booking facilities are available at Pampa, Nilakkal, Erumeli, Vandiperiyar, and Pandalam.