Novi to celebrate Rathyatra festival on Sunday

By NewsGram Staff Writer

The 30^th annual Michigan Rathyatra (Chariot festival) is going to be held on Sunday at Novi, Michigan. Thousands of people are expected to participate in the pulling of 40-foot-tall chariot carrying a beautiful idol of Lord Krishna through the streets of Novi.

The Michigan annual festival started in 1985 at Detroit. Later it was shifted to Belle Isle. It is being held at Novi, for last few years, where many thousand people gather every year.

It is an open to all festival and there will be an Indian cultural festival with free lunch, music and yoga after the procession.

This annual celebration is done as a counterpart to the famous Rathyatra of Puri in the Indian state of Odisha, where every year, Lord Jagannatha is taken in procession, a celebration attended by around 1 million people.

The celebration of this festival was started in US by International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in 1967 at San Francisco and it later spread to other cities.

The devotees believe that the Lord comes out on the streets to visit his devotees on this day. The procession will start from Novi Civil Center at 10 Mile Road, on Sunday at 11 am.

(With inputs from IANS)