Hyderabad: Due to a lunar eclipse that is expected to occur in the early hours of Sunday, starting at 1.05 a.m. and lasting until 2:22 a.m., temples around the state will be closed from Saturday night till Sunday morning. There are announcements of closure for all the main temples.
“The temple will be kept closed because of the eclipse from 5 pm on Saturday till ‘Samprokshana,’ marking Sunday’s sunrise,” stated M. Lakshmi Narasimha Acharyulu, the head priest of the Birla temple.
The Chilkur Balaji temple will be closed for eight hours on Saturday, starting at 5:30 p.m. Around 7 a.m. the next day, it will be available for morning darshan.
Venugopala Dikshitulu, the main priest of the Lord Venkateswara temple in Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam, explained the significance of the occasion by saying,”Vedic literature instructs us to keep temples closed during any eclipse, be it solar or lunar.”