The age-old temple festival Thrissur Pooram was held amidst great fanfare on Wednesday in Kerala. As the celebrations culminated into the second day, hundreds poured in enthusiastically to witness the colourful temple event that had grand fireworks. Known as the mother of all temple festivals, Thrissur Pooram 2018 was held at the Thekkinkadu ground in front of the famous Vadakkunnatha Temple.

One of the spectacular moments of the celebrations was the 30 richly caparisoned elephants, 15 each from the Paramekkavu and Thiruvambady, the two local temples, standing in front a sea of crowd. Another event that saw hundreds of visitors was Kudamattam. In the age-old custom, people mounted on elephants change colourful ornamental silk parasols in quick succession.

The grand finale of the Pooram festivities was marked by a colourful display of fireworks in the early hours of Thursday, which is custom. The authorities received approval for the grand display of fireworks after much delay due to previous fatal accidents caused in different temple festivals in Kerala.

Watch the video of fireworks here:

Watch the video of the temple festival here:

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who was present during the festivities took to Facebook addressing it as a 'secular festival' of the state. He wrote that the state government would extend their full support to the Pooram which is a pride of Malayalis world over.

Here is the Facebook post:

Percussion maestro Peruvanam Kuttan Marar led the 'Ilanjithara melam,' in which an assembly of professionals performing at Ilanji tree in the premises of Vadakkunnathan Temple. The Thrissur Pooram began in 1798 after the Raja Rama Varma, a powerful ruler of the erstwhile princely state of Cochin, popularly known as Shakthan Thampuran, started the event.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 26, 2018 12:38 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).