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The Velankanni Church festival began in Chennai Thursday with thousands of pilgrims paying a visit to the Annai Velankanni Shrine (Our Lady of Good Health) in Besant Nagar late in the evening for the flag hoisting ceremony. The annual 11-day festival will be held at the Our Lady of Good Health Churches in Chennai’s Besant Nagar and the coastal town of Velankanni in Nagapattinam district, Tamil Nadu from August 29 to September 8 this year.
Lakhs of devotees are expected to visit both the churches for the next 11 days.
Here is all that you need to know about the festival:
The festival will be held for 11 days from August 29 to September 8. A feast dedicated to Mother Mary will be held on September 8 to mark the conclusion of the festival.
The Velankanni festival will be held at the 47-year-old Annai Velankanni Shrine in Besant Nagar, Chennai and the 500-year-old Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health at Velankanni in Nagapattinam.
With most parts of Chennai having well-established bus routes to Besant Nagar, devotees within the city can catch any bus bound for Besant Nagar and reach the shrine.
The Tamil Nadu State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) has deployed over 150 A/C, non-A/C and sleeper buses across the state to transport devotees to Velankkani for the festival. Buses will be arranged from Chennai, Coimbatore, Trivandrum, Bangalore and other major cities in the south until September 8.
The Southern Railway has also introduced special trains to and from Velankanni from August 29 to September 8, to help devotees from across the country to reach Velankanni for the 11-day festival. These include special trains between Velankanni and Chennai, Nagapattinam, Trichy and Thanjavur.
Additionally, South Central Railway announced that special trains have been introduced between Velankanni and Mumbai Lokmanya Tilak Terminus and Bandra Terminus.
Mass for the festival will be held in Tamil and English at the shrine in Besant Nagar. Tamil mass will be held every day from 05:30 am to 06:30 am, 11 am to 12 pm and 6 pm to 7 pm, while the English mass will be held once a day from 07:45 am to 08:45 am.
The Our Lady of Good Health shrines receive a footfall of 1,000 devotees on average every day. During the 11-day festival, the number is expected to rise to atleast one lakh devotees a day. On Thursday, around 2 lakh people visited Besant Nagar to offer prayers to Mother Mary.
The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has set up three restroom facilities for devotees – one each on the Besant Nagar promenade, Edward Elliots beach and outside the Annai Velankanni Church. Further, the GCC is expected to set up mobile toilets and water kiosks at various points in Chennai by Saturday to cater to devotees who will be undertaking a foot pilgrimage to arrive at the church.
Since thousands of people are expected to attend the festival, police have stepped up security and increased surveillance at Besant Nagar and Velankanni and have deployed police at vantage points to keep the crowd under control and ensure that no untoward incidents occur.
At Velankanni, the police have installed check posts, CCTV cameras, baggage scanners and metal detectors at the church and have deployed units to patrol the town at regular intervals. Further, over 3,000 police personnel, anti-sabotage team, Railway Protection Force (RPF) officials and sniffer dogs have been pressed into service to help maintain law and order in the town.
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