VISAKHAPATNAM: Utkal Sanskrutika Samaj, a socio-cultural organisation of Odias residing in Visakhapatnam, has made elaborate arrangements for organising this year's annual Rath Yatra festival on July 1. The Samaj is reviving the nine-day celebration after making it a symbolic celebration during the past two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The procession of the chariot carrying the deities of Lord Jagannath, Sister Subhadra and Brother Balabhadra (Balarama) will be taken out from the Jagannath temple complex at Daspalla Hills to Gundicha Ghar, the aunt's place of Lord Jagannath near Shanti Ashram.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Utkal Sanskrutika Samaj president JK Nayak said that the festival has significance as for the first time Lord Jagannath comes to the streets from the sanctum sanctorum to enable the common man to have darshan. “The deities will be decorated with Tulsi leaves Wednesday evening which is known as Tulasi Vesha/Besha as per the customs followed in world famous Puri Temple,” said Nayak.
General secretary Bimal Kumar Mahanta said that the deities will have their sojourn in the Gundicha temple and will come back to the main temple, which is called Bahuda Yatra (Return Yatra). “Ethnic delicacies like Poda Pitha, Chhena Poda and traditional Odia food will be offered as prasad during the nine-day festival. “I urge the devotees to attend chariot-pulling ceremony and later in the daily rituals at the Gundicha Ghar in large numbers,” said Mahanta.
