Panchayath/ Municipality/ Krishnapuram Village, Wadakkancherry Taluk Corporation LOCATION District Thrissur Nearest Town/ Mannuthi – 3.9 km Landmark/ Junction Nearest Bus statio Mannuthi Bus Stop – 1.7 km Nearest Railway Thrissur Railway Station – 6.5 km statio ACCESSIBILITY Nearest Airport Cochin International Airport – 49 km Machattu Thiruvanikavu Temple, Krishnapuram Village, Thrissur, Kerala 680655 Ph No: 9446 870 871 CONTACT DATES FREQUENCY DURATION TIME February – March Annually 5 days ABOUT THE FESTIVAL (Legend/History/Myth) Machattu festival is a five day festival, held every year in the month of February. It is dedicated to the gods in the temple of Machattu Thiruvanikavu located near Vadakkancherry in district of Thrissur. All the five days have plenty of devotees arriving in colourful dresses and procession with song and orchestras. Kuthirakolams or ornately decorated horse shaped structures are prepared for the procession, which is marked on the last day of the festival. In a grand procession, people arrive at the temple and offer their respective kuthirakolams to the Lord. The aim of the designed horses is to represent the respective villages in the region and these are offered with the belief that Goddess Bhagabathy showers blessings on the villagers and their houses. As myth will have it the Goddess Bhagavathy leaves the temple to visit the homes of the devotees all around and accepts the offerings in turn showers blessings on them. Local Approximately 1000 RELEVANCE- NO. OF PEOPLE (Local / National / International) PARTICIPATED EVENTS/PROGRAMS DESCRIPTION (How festival is celebrated) The Machattu Mamangam is a five day festival of pageantry Kuthirakolams and is celebrated at the Machattu Thiruvanikavu Temple dedicated to Goddess Bhagavathy. The main procession is Chendamelam on the concluding day where heavily adorned kuthirakolams (effigies of horses) are ceremoniously brought to the temple by devotees as offerings. This ceremony is marked by much fervour where the high spirited crowds revel in merriment and cheer the effigies on. The evenings include elephant pageants accompanied by chendamelam (traditional percussion music) being taken out to the temple courtyard. Several cultural programmes are also held during the festival days. The festival is orgainsed by five desams (Villages) in a competitive way. Karumatra, Viruppakka, Mangalam, Parlikadu and Manalithara are the 5 main participants of the festival. Thekkumkara , Punnamparambu,and Panangattukara are desams who take initiative in conducting pooram once in every three years. The festival starts with a parapurappadu on first friday of Kumbham according to malayalam calendar. .