Ratha Yatra 2020 – Peacefully Organised with COVID-19 Norms Followed

thumbnail

The most religious festival of Odisha, Ratha Yatra was celebrated on 23rd June 2020.

For more details on Ratha Yatra – Click Here

Earlier the Apex Court had cancelled Ratha Yatra considering the current pandemic situation. But then again petition was filed in Supreme Court seeking partial modification in the earlier order.

The guidelines given by the Supreme Court along with the general COVID-19 precautions (Frequently sanitisation, mandatory mask and social distancing) were:

  1. The Ratha must not be pulled by more than 500 people. These people need to be tested for COVID-19 beforehand.
  2. An interval of one hour is to be maintained between two chariots.

This year Ratha Yatra was one of its kind, and for the first time in the history, it was observed without the lakhs of general devotees who otherwise gather to pull the chariots.

Glimpse of Ratha Yatra in previous years

Glimpse of Ratha Yatra 2020

Some noticeable facts about Ratha Yatra 2020 are

  1. Curfew has been imposed by the state government in Puri on all the days. So, there was curfew during the Ratha Tana as well, and no one was allowed to come out from their houses, lodges, etc. All the rituals, and especially the pulling of the chariots (Ratha Tana) were done by the servitors of the Lord Jagannath (Shreemandira Sevaka) and police officials. The general devotees watched live telecast by Doordarshan and other channels in TV and social media.
  2. All the 500 servitors were tested negative for the COVID-19 before the Ratha Yatra, and social distancing was maintained whenever possible. Only five servitors were allowed on each of the chariots which would not have been the case otherwise.
  3. Bada Danda was sanitised from time to time.
  4. King of Puri, who generally comes with a big procession for Chhera Pahanra (One of the rituals), went with a minimalistic procession this year.
  5. Generally, it takes two days to complete all the rituals as it is believed that chariots should not be pulled post-sunset. But surprisingly, all the rituals were completed in one day this year as there were very few people compared to other years.
COVID-19 Precautions are followed
Few Servitors on the Chariot
King of Puri arrived with mask on

In the end, Ratha Yatra was observed peacefully and smoothly respecting the Supreme Court orders. We hope further rituals would be observed in the same way.

ଜୟ ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ 🙏

Please follow and like us:
Spread the love

Leave a Reply

avatar
  Subscribe  
Notify of
Back To Top
satta king chart