The whole city comes alive as hotels in Kandy, restaurants, and storekeepers prepare to welcome the guests that will flood into the city during the event. Hotels such as Earl's Regent Kandy and other city hotels get filled to the brim with locals and tourists who come to witness this magnificent display. The city is illuminated by decorations and lights that bring the streets of Kandy alive even at night. A few days before the perahera begins a kappa, which is a sampling of a tree that sheds thick white milk, and is then erected in each of the four devala ( temples).