416 Marriages In A Day: Guruvayoor Temple Creates A Record
· Free Press Journal
In Kerala, life is very marry, marry. On the auspicious day of the first Sunday of Malayalam Chingam month, 416 marriages were solemnised at the famous Guruvayoor Temple, in the central Thrissur district, breaking the earlier record of 334.
The Guruvayoor Sri Krishna temple and the Sabarimala Ayappa temple attract people from all over the country. Neither of the temples has positioning in the miracle’s market, but much goodness is believed to emanate from them.
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Cupid is not believed to visit the temple, but the first Sunday of Chingam is believed to bring prosperity. The chief priest of the Guruvayoor Temple must have run out of his eternal stock of blessings, as couples lined up in front of him from 4.10 am till 12.45 pm in the hope of a “happily ever after” marriage.
Guruvayoor is visited on the first of every Malayalam month by people across the state, but the 2026 Chingam was indeed a great day for happiness and love for Keralites.
Love In God’s Own Country
Most of the Guruvayoor couples are undoubtedly working outside the state or are NRIs, but when it comes to divine intervention and blessings, they all return to Kerala. For, after all, it is God’s Own Country, and people have taken the famous tourism department tagline to heart.
Over the years, Kerala has risen in the national consciousness as a paradise on earth. Hundreds of reels uploaded every day by awe-struck visitors emphasise the paradisiacal quality of the state, blessed with shocking greenery and crystal-clear blue waters that give its backwaters a cerulean beauty.
In paradise, love also blooms aplenty, more so when it is closer to the Chingam month and the rains are never-ending and the lotus leaves have globules of water floating on them.
A Paradise Of Rituals And Romance
Kerala is full of gods and rituals and temple bells (and church bells) ringing through the year. The Gayatri mantras and other shlokas that one hears in the morning add to a morning in paradise.
The huge number of jewellery shops that line its narrow streets makes the paradise complete. Keralites say that the very sight of such glitter on the streets evokes romance in Kerala’s young girls. For many such youngsters, life itself is a fantasy and marriage the ultimate entry into a dream world.
Sadly, this paradise is really short of cash, as unemployment among the marriageable aged youth (15 to 29) is a troubling 29.9 per cent. So the wallets of many among the 416 who got married yesterday may not be overflowing with cash or hope.
But for such cashless, love-struck grooms or brides, it does not matter. For they can sing of love and hope, like in the 1953 classic movie Pranasakhi (Sweetheart) in which Prem Nazir sings, “For my sweetheart to stay, in my troubled heart I will build a Taj Mahal with my dreams.”