Hi Guys, I am Going to share detail information regarding Velankanni Feast. If you never been to Velankanni during Feast,But planning to visit this year.
Velankanni feast starts Each year at 29th August and ends at 8th September on mother Mary's Birthday.
1) How to reach Velankanni.
The 1st Option will be by flight ✈️.
You can take flight from your respective cities till Chennai. because Velankanni doesn't have its own airport. From Chennai there is daily train From Chennai Eggmore station, Train no #16185 which leaves at 10pm every night and reach next day morning at 6:30am to Velankanni station.
Otherwise you can take bus from Koyambedu Bus stand till nagapattinam, which is just 20-25mins away from Velankanni. Bus are available in every hour frequency at night.
2nd Option will be by train 🚂.
If you are from Mumbai the best train will be Karaikal express train #11017,It's an weekly train that leaves every Saturday at 12:05pm from Lokmanya Tilak terminus LTT and next day reach nagapattinam station by 6:30pm, It's an 30hrs journey.
You can also explore various daily train from your respective city to reach till Chennai. then from Chennai you can either take train or bus till Velankanni or can also book private cab.
2) Accomodation Problem in Velankanni during Feast.
People Avoid visiting Velankanni feast due to Accomodation problem because it's heavily crowded and people don't get Rooms easily at this time. But people who want to visit for entire 9 days of Feast they won't face this problem and I will tell you how.
You just have to reach Velankanni 2-3 days before the feast starts. So you can easily book church lodges which will cost you around 600rs - 700rs per day for Non Ac Room.
Most important point while booking church rooms is, they don't accept cards or another other mode of payment like Paytm or online payment they only accept CASH. So kindly make sure you carry Cash while booking the rooms and Xerox copy of pancard and adhar card is also required.
You can book private lodges and hotel during Feast time in advance at least 2-3 months prior, Online booking is also available.
Most of this Lodges give room for entire 9 days of Feast. So you can call and check with them if you want rooms for couple of days, All details are easily available online.
3) Khaana (Food options).
So the people who will be going along with family the best thing to do will be to cook their own food, even church lodge and private lodges have the option to cook food. And this place has great option of sea food which you can enjoy.
If you don't want to cook then you can try various restaurants,which will provide you reasonable food. You cannot expect delicious delicacy,but various options are there for breakfast,Lunch and dinner at reasonable price range. It will be south indian style food because of its demography.
4) Daily Schedule during Feast..
Since early morning 5am mass starts, mass goes on entire day in different languages in different Chappel. And they have put hoarding of it at various places, and also they frequently make announcement of it, So people can attend them as per their convenience.
At 12 noon flag hosting happens every day during Feast.
Then in evening at 6:30pm Novena starts everyday followed with cart procession of mother Mary at 8pm. It take's an hour for entire procession to complete.
This are the key details of VELANKANNI FEAST. If you have any doubts you can ask me I will definitely will try to answer that for you. Thank you!