Guruvayur (, ) is a municipal temple town in Thrissur District, of Kerala State in India. It is a suburban town of Thrissur city, located from Thrissur towards the north-west. It houses the Guruvayur Shri Krishna Temple. It is located at a distance of from the state capital Trivandrum towards the north-west, from Kochi towards the north, from Calicut towards south. Etymology According to Hindu legend, the deity Krishna is said to have asked a deity and a sage to take the idol from his temple in Dvaraka before it was destroyed by a flood, and establish it in Kerala. Accordingly, the idol of Krishna is believed to have been brought by the wind deity Vayu and Sage Brihaspati and was placed in Guruvayur. The name Guruvayur is a portmanteau of their names: Guru referring to the title of Brihaspati, Vayu referring to the deity. Ur is a Malayalam suffix that means city or settlement. Demographics In 2010, the Municipality has been upgraded to Grade 1 by merging adjoining nearby Pookode and Thaikkad panchayats. The Municipality consists of Perakam (CT) village, Pookode Village, Iringappuram(CT) Village , Thaikkad(CT) Village, Chavakkad Village, and Guruvayur Village part, revenue villages of Chavakkad Taluk. Thus the Municipality total area is 29.66 square kilometers, total number of wards (43), population (67,006) and population density (2,259 per square kilometer) are changed. Government Guruvayur Township was formed on 26 January 1962 with four electoral wards with an area of . Later the wards were increased to 10 and in 1994 to 20 when the township was upgraded to Municipality status with an area of . In 2010, the electoral wards were increased to 43. Guruvayur is a Grade-1 Municipality. Guruvayur assembly constituency is part of Trichur (Lok Sabha constituency). Festivals Guruvayur Ekadashi Ekadashi, the eleventh day of every lunar fortnight, is very auspicious to the Hindus. Of the 24 Ekadashis in a year, the Vrishchika Ekadashi (Sukla paksha) has got special significance in Guruvayur temple. A memorial honour for Gajarajan Keshavan is conducted in Guruvayur. The Karanavar or head of the elephant family places a wreath at the statue of Keshavan in front of Sreevalsam guest house and all the other elephants stand around and pay obeisance. On Ekadashi day, the Udayasthamana Pooja (dawn to dusk pooja) is conducted by the Devaswom itself . After the morning seeveli, on Ekadashi there is a grand elephant procession to the