Aluva Sivarathri: Bali Tarpanam, Getting There and the Trade Fair

Aluva Sivarathri is held each year on Maha Shivaratri night in the Malayalam month of Kumbham (February or March) at Aluva Manappuram, the sandbank on the Periyar beside the Aluva Mahadeva Temple. Devotees keep an all-night vigil and perform bali tarpanam, the rite for ancestors, on the riverbank the next morning. For 2026 the Travancore Devaswom Board set the bali tarpanam fee at Rs 100 and prepared 110 bali platforms along the bank. Aluva Municipality traditionally runs a month-long trade fair on the sands alongside the festival.

• What is Aluva Sivarathri?
• When is Aluva Sivarathri?
• How does bali tarpanam at Aluva work?
• How do you get to Aluva Manappuram?
• Is the Sivarathri trade fair worth it?

What is Aluva Sivarathri?

It is the biggest night in the calendar of the Aluva Mahadeva Temple, an unusual Shiva temple on the Periyar's sandbank. The Shiva linga here is not enclosed in a sanctum and stays open to the sky; one temple legend holds that a permanent shrine is not meant to stand on the spot. On Sivarathri night, devotees fast, chant and stay awake on the sands, and the morning after is given over to rites for the dead. If you have been to the riverbank for Karkidaka Vavu, it is the same ground with a bigger crowd.

When is Aluva Sivarathri?

Sivarathri follows the lunar calendar, so the date moves each year within February and March. The festival period around it runs for close to a month, ending with the Aarattu ceremony. Upcoming dates:

Year	Maha Shivaratri
2026	15 February (held)
2027	6 March, per most published panchangs; confirm with the temple nearer the date

How does bali tarpanam at Aluva work?

Bali tarpanam starts after the midnight Sivarathri vilakku and procession, and continues through the following morning; in 2026 the temple's head priest said rites could be performed until noon on the Monday. Priests sit at bali platforms (balitharas) along the bank and guide families through the ritual. What to expect, using the 2026 arrangements as a guide:

• A fixed fee set by the Travancore Devaswom Board: Rs 100 in 2026
• Rows of bali platforms along the bank: 110 in 2026
• Free meals for devotees who keep the overnight vigil
• Traffic restrictions in Aluva from the afternoon of Sivarathri until the next afternoon
• A green protocol, so carry your own water bottle rather than buying plastic

If you are going only for the tarpanam, go after first light rather than straight after midnight. The queue at the platforms is at its worst in the hours after the procession.

How do you get to Aluva Manappuram?

The options, in order of how much we would recommend them on the night:

• Kochi Metro: Aluva is the metro's northern terminus, and in 2026 the metro ran special services until 11.30 pm on Sivarathri night. Check Kochi Metro fares before you go.
• KSRTC: the corporation runs special services to Manappuram; it announced 210 of them for 2026.
• Train: Aluva railway station is on the Shoranur to Ernakulam line, and nearly all passenger trains on it stop at Aluva, though the Rajdhani and a few superfast trains do not.
• Car: the worst choice on the night itself. Expect diversions and hunting for parking.

Is the Sivarathri trade fair worth it?

Aluva Municipality has organised a month-long trade fair on the Manappuram sands for years, with stalls, food, a fairground and illuminations, and cultural programmes. It is loud, dusty and very much a local fair rather than a curated festival, which is the point: it is one of the few places in Ernakulam where a weeknight still feels like an old temple-town utsavam. Go on a weekday evening in the run-up to Sivarathri, not on the night itself, when the sands belong to pilgrims. For the rest of the town, our Aluva neighbourhood guide covers the rest.