Mumbai: Millions of Lord Ayyappa devotees have started preparations for the annual pilgrimage to the deity's mountaintop shrine in Sabarimala, Kerala.

The pilgrimage season started on November 16 with the beginning of the mandala vratam or the 41-day austerities before undertaking the journey to the shrine. Mandala refers to 41 days.

In Mumbai, groups of devotees have started organising their pujas to coincide with the pilgrimage season that will end in January. This year, the oldest Ayyappa event in the city, the festival at Dadar-Matunga organised by the Ayyappa Bhakta Samaj, will celebrate its 75th anniversary.

The festival was started by hotelier V Krishnan Nair in 1950. Nair had come to Mumbai in 1939 to work for General Motors and later established the 'Star of Cochin' restaurant and hotel in Dadar. When he passed away in 1972, his son, V Gopalkrishnan Nair, took over the business and the Ayyappa devotional tradition.

"This was the first Ayyappa celebration, not only in Mumbai but in Maharashtra. All the other events in the city are offshoots of this celebration, established in the suburbs as families migrated there," said Nair.

The festival at Matunga-Dadar will be held on January 13 and 14 at Nappoo Gardens. The Shri Ayyappa Seva Samiti's week-long festival at the Ayyappa temple in Nerul, Navi Mumbai, will begin on December 8. This is the festival's 40th year, said Sreevalsan Menon, secretary of the Samiti.

Satish Menon, a Pune resident who joins the celebrations organised by the Tilak Nagar Ayyappa Bhakta Samaj in Chembur where he lived earlier, will be traveling to Sabarimala this weekend. The Tilak Nagar puja, which started in 1990, will be held on December 7, said Menon, a life member of the Samaj.

Another important days in the pilgrimage calendar is December 26 which marks the end of the mandala vratam. The temple closes after this day and reopens on December 30. The most important day of the pilgrimage is January 14 when the makarajyothi, a celestial light symbolising Lord Ayyappa, is seen above the hills near the shrine. The temple closes five days after this and is open only for the first five days of every month of the Malayalam calendar till the next year's pilgrimage.

Austerities during the festival including celibacy, abstention from alcohol, tobacco, and wearing of black robes. Pilgrims also carry a sacred bundle of offerings to the temple. The exacting spiritual requirements for the journey means that first timers are guided by veteran pilgrims called 'guruswamis' who instruct novices on the intricate details of the journey.

For a festival that is observed to honour a once-obscure deity whose worship was confined to Kerala, the annual pilgrimage now attracts millions of devotees from across India. Actor Amitabh Bachchan has spoken about his pilgrimage to the shrine. Other devotees include actor Ajay Devgan.

Nair says that he has taken Parsi, Christian, Muslim, and Sikh friends with him to the shrine. "The most important feature of the pilgrimage is that this is the only temple in the world where you can see secularism in action. Everyone dresses in black clothes and are indistinguishable and equal," said Nair.

Garodia Nagar Bhaktha Sangha will hold its 52nd annual mandala puja between November 29 and December 1 at Lions Club Community Hall, Garodia Nagar, Ghatkopar (East). Apart from religious rituals like Mahaganapathy Homan and Ayyappa Sahasranama, the festival will also feature cultural programmes on the second day.