Guruvayur: Marriages can again be solemnised with divine blessings at the Guruvayur temple.

The Guruvayur Devaswom will make arrangements for marriages to be held at the temple’s mandapams (raised platforms) from Thursday.

Marriages will be held from 5am till noon.

Weddings were stopped at the mandapams, in front of the eastern gate of the temple, due to the COVID-19 lockdown that was in place since March 24.

The Devaswom said a marriage group should not have more than 10 people, including the bride and the groom.

Those who intend to participate in the marriage ceremony will have to provide photo identity cards and also the non-quarantine, non-history certificates issued by the medical officer for making a booking.

The Devaswom said bookings can be done at its book stall in front of the temple from 10am on Wednesday.

The Devaswom will provide photographers. However, it will not make arrangements for the thali pooja, it said.

The marriage groups will have to assemble at the Melpathur auditorium in front of the eastern gate of the temple. They will be allowed to go to the mandapams as per the timings given in the booking tokens.

The mandapams will be sanitised after each marriage.

After the marriage ceremony, the wedding groups will be allowed to pray in front of the lamp pole (Deepasthambam) and will have to exit from the southern side.

There will be no marriages on Sundays till the COVID-19 curfew is in place.

If the Sunday curfew is lifted, marriages on June 21 will be held before 9.15am in view of the solar eclipse on that day.

The decisions were taken in a meeting attended by Guruvayur MLA K V Abdul Khader, Devaswom chairman K B Mohandas, Thrissur district collector S Shanavas and district police chief R Adithya.

Confusion over demand for certificate

There is some confusion over the demand for a non-quarantine certificate for making the marriage bookings.

The Devaswom has said bookings can be done till September. The question then is how can someone produce a certificate for a booking to be done months ahead of a marriage.

Doctors have made it clear that a non-quarantine certificate cannot be issued months in advance. 

There is also no way to figure out if a person coming from another state has been in quarantine or not.