By Our Correspondent
NOIDA: The Jagannath Temple at Garhi Choukhandi in sector 121of Noida celebrated Annual Car Festival on Tuesday with much fanfare and spiritual fervour. Around 5,000 devotees alongwith their family members gathered here to witness the Grand Ceremony. Around 5.00 a.m. in the dawn Mangala Arati was performed before the deities in the Temple. The establishment of Chariot and the related religious rituals were performed at 11.00 a.m. The Idols were offered 56 types of Bhogs, specially prepared for the occasion at around noon.
The Mahaprasad was distributed among the visitors at 1.30 p.m. Special arrangement was made by the Temple Management Committee Shree Jagannath Samiti under the stewardship of General Secretary Dr Manoranjan Mohanty to control the crowd and maintain law and order.
The Pahandi Bije of all Four Deities to the 24ft High colourfully decorated chariot by servitors started around 2 p.m. The entire atmosphere reverberated with the recitals of hymns, roaring of slogans like Haribol and Jai Jagannath, sounding of Huluhuli, blowing of conch and playing of musical instruments such as Ghanta, Kartala, Mardala, Jhanja and Mrudanga by the devotees.
The Distinguished Guests present include former Union Minister Dr Mahesh Sharma and M.P. Surender Nagar. After the traditional service of sweeping infront of the Chariot called Chherapahanra was done at 3.00 p.m., the pulling of Chariot commenced. The Royal Chariot having Four Deities on Board were pulled by devotees till 3 k.m. to the Aunt’s House located at Baba Balaknath Temple in Sector 71. The Chariot reached their in the evening. The emotional scene of devotees earning lots of fortune by sheer having a holy glimpse of Lord of the Universe atop the Chariot was just memorable and mesmerising. At Baba Balak Nath Temple, the Idols were taken in a procession to the Aunt’s place and were placed in the special podium in night.
The Gods and Goddess will be worshipped here till the Bahuda Yatra on 28th June 2023 as per the information of Temple sources. The massive arrangements of Rath Yatra Festival was successfully conducted with the active involvement of the Office Bearers and members of Temple Management Committee which include President Biswanath Tripathy, General Secretary Dr Manoranjan Mohanty, Vice President Pramod Bal and Nigamananda Mohanty, Joint Secretary Dhaneswar Nayak and executive body members Subala Behera, Dillip Swain, Debu Mishra, Akshay Swain, Prashant Khillar, Abhimanyu Parida, Ramesh Nayak, Prakash Ray, A.R.Parija, Bharat Pradhan, Kishore Parida and Dr Bimbadhar Rath.
