VELANKANNI FESTIVAL
AT
NAGAPATINAM
The festival starts on August 29 with the hoisting of the church flag and would end on September 8.
A total of around 800,000 devotees are
expected to render their prayers at the basilica Our Lady of Health located in
Velankanni – a small town in Nagapattinam district in Tamil Nadu – during the
11 day festival, said an official. The festival starts on August 29 with the
hoisting of the church flag and would end on September 8.
“Around seven-eight lakh devotees from
different faiths are expected to visit Velankanni church during the festival
that starts on August 29. On certain days the number of people will go up to
300,000,” Fr E.J.Thomas, Director, Shrine Media told IANS over phone from
Velankanni. He said people from the southern states and also from Maharashtra,
Odisha and other states would visit Velankanni during the festival time.
A police official in Velankanni told
IANS that security and other arrangements have been made to handle the devotees
who congregate in large numbers. “There are open space around the church and
crowd management will not be an issue,” the police official added not wanting
to be quoted.
According to Thomas, special mass will
be held in Tamil, English, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Konkani.
During the festival, the church car will be pulled by the devotees.
He said this is the first festival after
the renovation of the main shrine. The state-owned transport corporation and
Indian Railways have announced special services to handle the additional
passenger load to Velankanni from different places.
