Chhath Puja celebrated in State

SHILLONG/TURA: Chhath Puja was celebrated in parts of the state with prayers.
In Shillong, devotees thronged many river banks to offer prayers.
Men and women carried offerings to God and religious songs and discourses marked the occasion.
Chhath Puja, the ancient hindu vedic festival dedicated to the sun for bestowing the bounties of life on earth and to seek the granting of certain wishes, was also celebrated in Tura on Tuesday with hundreds of devotees gathering on the banks of the Babupara stream to offer prayers and seek blessings.
The rituals of the festival are rigorous and observed over a period of four days particularly by the women devotees called Parvaitin, who pray for the wellbeing of their families and for the prosperity of their offsprings. These include holy bathing, fasting and abstaining from drinking water. On Tuesday, the third and final day of the observance, the devotees, including men, immerse themselves in the cold waters of the stream with their offerings and perform the ‘Surya Namaskar’ to the setting sun followed with a similar ritual the next morning as the sun rises.
In Tura, worshippers of Chhath Puja, particularly the Bihari community of Garo Hills, actively took part in the celebrations with a large number of womenfolk in colourful attire offering puja on the banks of the stream while the men carried the offerings to the venue.
Several women devotees also performed a prostration march to seek favours or for blessings attained by falling to the ground and offering prayers all the way from their homes to the puja venue.
“This is a very important festival for all of us because it is dedicated to the sun for the blessings given to us,” said senior member of the Chhath Puja committee Hiralal Prasad. The annual festival, which begins after Diwali festival, comes to a conclusion on Wednesday morning after devotees offer the ‘Surya Namaskar’ to the rising sun.