Kolkata: Rath Yatra is a popular festival in several Indian cities.
Kolkata, known to celebrate all festivals with great fanfare and enthusiasm, doesn’t lag behind during Rath Yatra as well.
Come Tuesday, ISKCON’s massive Rath will be taken out on the streets of Kolkata and travel several kilometres watched by thousands of citizens along the route. Kids of all ages will take out their decorated Raths in every lane and bylane of the city.
An added attraction of Rath Yatra 2023 will be a huge paper lantern to be released into the sky to mark the start of the festival on June 20.
Shib Mandir in south Kolkata, which organises one of the biggest and popular Durga Pujas every year, will be the site from where the 11.5-ft paper lantern will be released, reported Telegraphindia.com.
The black lantern has the distinctively circular eyes of Lord Jagannath painted on it.
It has been pieced together by 72-year-old veteran paper lantern-maker Pradyot Kumar Mallik.
“He wanted to make three paper lanterns on the three divine siblings Jagannath, Balaram and Subhadra. But since we took the decision just eight days ago, there was very little time left and we decided to go with just a big Jagannath creation,” said Partha Ghosh, general secretary of the temple committee.
Mallik, who has the experience of making these for about six decades, has pieced together paper lanterns for various other occasions like football tournaments and fairs. This is the first time he has been commissioned for Rath Yatra.
According to Ghosh, a Jagannath idol was installed at Shib Mandir in 2016, and Rath Yatra was started in 2017 when a devotee gifted them a 12-ft chariot.
A big crowd is expected to gather near the temple for the release of the lantern at 4.30 pm, before the chariot starts rolling around 5 pm.
