Rhodes Island: Rath Yatra festival of Lord Jagannath was celebrated with pomp and grandeur by Odias and local residents in Rhodes Island, the smallest state of the United States.
The Hindu Temple at Warwick, where Lord Jagannath and siblings are presently being worshipped, was aesthetically and elegantly decorated on the occasion.
The day of the sixth edition of car festival here began with the performance of special religious rituals like mangala alati in the morning by priest Somnath Shastri. The whole ambience of the temple was agog with pious and spiritual fervour. Subsequently, the Idols were taken in dhadi pahandi procession by the servitors and devotees to the colourfully decorated 15 feet high chariot parked in front of the temple.
Floral ornamentation of the deities and chariot were immaculately done by mother-daughter duo Shardha Nayak and Sudeepa Nayak. The entire atmosphere got reverberated with the chanting of hymns, and hari bol and Jai Jagannath, blowing of conch and playing ghanta, mardala, jhanja and mrudanga. The splendid scene of goddess Subhadra being carried in a swinging mode to the chariot by exclusively lady worshippers was momentous.
Enthusiasm and excitements were visible among the Odia and non-Odia devotees gathered at the venue along with their friends, family members and relatives to take part in the chariot pulling ceremony. People from far off places like Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts also descended at the festival site in large numbers to have a glimpse of the trinity on the chariot.
Renowned philanthropist Subhransu Mohanty conducted the traditional service of sweeping in front of the chariot called Chhera Pahanra. With the rendering of bhajans and kirtans, the pulling of chariot commenced thereafter. The chariot was pulled around 1.5 kms in the outskirt of temple compound and then taken back to the premises of the shrine. The deities were then offered prasad prepared in the style of Ananda Bazar of Puri. The sight of the deities on board the chariot during their majestic sojourn on the streets of Warwick was amazing and viewer’s delight.
The distinguished dignitaries present included famous painter Priyanka Sahani, bio-technocrat Anup Mohanty and IT consultant Chiranjeevee Mohapatra.
This year’s car festival witnessed a spectacular cultural extravaganza consisting of soul soothing recitals of bhajans by Pragyan Behera, Sunil Kumar Dooda and Munmun Das and scintillating Odissi dance performance in front of the chariot by Reena Dash.
The cultural session was ably coordinated and moderated by Munmun Das. The entire arrangements of rath yatra were neatly executed with overall guidance of World Odisha Society’s International co–ordinator Akshay Mohanty and organisers like Mani Mahapatra, Simmy Mahapatra, Saroj Behera, Ranjeetha Behera, Chandra Nayak, Shardha Nayak, Digvijay Mahapatra, Aruna Mahapatra, Bishwa Patnaik, Lina Patnaik, Sukanta Patra, Sashi Mohanty, Kalpana Mohanty, Bishnupriya Bal, Karuna Meheta, Pankaj Panda and Soumyashree Dash.
