Makaravilakku is the sacred light witnessed at Sabarimala on the evening of Makara Saṅkrānti. It is the climax of the Mandala and Makaravilakku pilgrimage season to Lord Ayyappa, which pilgrims enter with forty-one days of austerities. As the deity is adorned with the Tiruvābharaṇam for the evening dīpārādhana, vast crowds watch the hill of Ponnambalamedu for the makara jyoti. Popular devotion treats the light as a sign of the Lord's grace. How the day is fixed: Makaravilakku is kept on the civil day of Makara Saṅkrānti, when the Sun enters Makara (Capricorn). This usually falls in mid-January. Keep in mind: The season opens weeks earlier on Vṛścikam 1, when pilgrims take the mālā and begin the mandala austerities. Makaravilakku is the close of that season, so the two days belong together but are kept separately. This year: The 2027 date shown here is worked out from sunrise at the place you chose, so in another city the same day can fall a day earlier or later. The pilgrimage: Pilgrims carry the Irumudi on their heads, climb to the sanctum and have darśana of Ayyappa. They complete the season by witnessing the Makara Saṅkrānti light. Hymn at home: Those who cannot make the pilgrimage may light a lamp that evening and recite the Hariharātmajāṣṭakam to Ayyappa. It is the hymn sung as Harivarāsanam before the sanctum closes for the night. Worth remembering: Makara Saṅkrānti itself, the Sun's ingress kept across India, falls on the same day but is a separate festival. The start of the season on Vṛścikam 1 is known as Mandala Begins. The details of the dīkṣā, from the black dress to the way the Irumudi is packed, vary between regions and between groups of pilgrims. There is public debate today over the physical source of the flame on the hillside, and devotees keep the pilgrimage as they have always practised it without settling that question. For those at home, the evening lamp and hymn follow family custom. The surest guide is the practice handed down by the elders of one's own house.
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