Puri Rath Yatra 29th June 2020

Unni Mohanadas June 29, 2020 Destinations 0

The largest chariot festival in the world is Rath Yatra festival of Puri Jagannath temple . Every year lakhs of devotees participate in this festival. This year due to Covid only 500 devotees were allowed to pull the Rath ( Chariot ) of Lord Jagannath

Location : Odisha, India

Destination Type : Pilgrim destination

History of Puri Rath yatra

Construction of the Jagannatha Temple started in 1136 CE and completed towards the latter part of the 12th century
The Rath yatra festival is said to associate with Lord Krishna, Balaram and Subhadra
The festival did not take place 32 times between 1558 and 1735 due to Mughal invasions
Despite outbreak of Spanish flu , it was held on 1919

Rituals

First event is Snan yatra, where the deities take bath with 108 pots of water
The deities are supposed to fell ill because of bath and the temple is closed for almost 2 weeks
On ‘Sri Gundicha’, the Deities are taken in the onward car festival from the main shrine to the Gundicha Temple
Suna Besha (Golden Attire) is the event when the Deities wear golden ornaments and give darshan from the chariots, to the devotees
On ‘Niladri Bije’ the deities are taken back to temple
The wood used for making Rath( chariots ) used to cook 56 things every day and feed anywhere between 2,000 to nearly 200,000 people