Thiruvannamalai - Largest Siva Temple.

Photo Source: Wikipedia under creative commons license.

Photo Source: Flickr under creative commons license.

Each full moon day of every month Girivalam is undertaken by the pilgrims. Millions of devotees take part every month in this healthy sacrament. This word Girivalam is the derivation of the Tamil word "Giri "means hill and "Valam" means coming around. For this reason coming around the hill is called as Girivalam in Tamil.

This monthly ritual is a gesture of dedication working a stage in spiritual developments. The illumination of the full moon light, is a monthly feature pilgrims drawn from different parts of the India visit the temple and dextrally move in a circle in large numbers keeping the hill as the centre covering in a complete round . To finish one full round (Girivalam) the hill, it is around 14 kilometres. And people both young and old devotedly go round on the full moon day. It is believed to bring in plentiful peace or calmness for the mental well being and also uplifting the physical fitness.

The Siddhas and disciples from all part of the country walk around the hill on all days. .But in the full moon day of every month, millions of devotees go around the hill recurrently.

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In Thiruvannamalai temple many festivals are celebrated through out the year. Among them Karthigai Deepam is the most important festival that is celebrated with splendor and cheerfulness at Arunachalaeswar temple in the Tamil month of 'Karthikai' that falls between 15th Nov. and 15th Dec. This festival is celebrated as a ten day festival and it widely known as 'Karthikai Deepam'

The tenth day of Karthigai Deepam festival is very important one and it starts at around 4am in the early morning and the 'Bharani Deepam' is lit at the temple. In the evening the 'Mahadeepam' is lit on the top of the Annamalai hill at around 6pm. This ceremony is a very important during the Karthikai Deepam festival. Lord Arunachaleswarar is said to be visually represented in the form of fire on the hill. There is a very huge gathering on this day at the temple to witness this magnificent and sacred event.

After this the night ceremony begins with 'Lord Periya nayagar' going out procession on the gold made Rishaba vahanam. This is another marvelous happening at Arunachaleswar temple at Tiruvannamalai.

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