Pallivetta
Pallivetta (meaning royal hunt) is an important ritual performed on the second last day of the annual temple festival in all temples in Kerala. It is a thantric ritual (besides the normal daily worship rituals to propitiate the deities) - to increase the glory and power of the deities and sometimes in atonement for any act that is might have decreased the power of the deity. The Pallivetta is held on the eve of Aarattu.
During the Pallivetta held in connection with the temple festival at the Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, the head of the royal family shoots a tender coconut using a bow and arrow. This ritual is symbolic of Lord Vishnu (the presiding deity of the shrine) hunting down the demon of evil in a forest.
In other temples the ritual would be the cutting up of a vegetable. Crowds of devotees following the deity as it is taken in a colourful procession from the temple and displayed in another location which may or may not be in the temple precincts. Once the rituals are over, it is returned to its place in the temple.
Another explanation for this ritual is that the gods and goddesses are brothers and sisters and one of them is paying the other an annual visit.
