TURA: Chhath Puja to honour the sun God was celebrated in Tura with the main event taking place on Sunday morning as Hindu devotees offered prayers and immersed themselves in the waters of Babupara stream before the break of dawn.
Chhath Puja celebrations are held each year between the months of October and November and in Tura the celebrations are supervised by the Tura Chhath Puja Committee.
A huge number of devotees, particularly from the Bihari community, took part in the celebrations on Saturday evening and early Sunday morning, with many taking part in ancient traditions of holy dips in the cold waters.
The ancient Hindu Vedic festival is dedicated to the sun for bestowing the bounties of life on earth and to seek the granting of certain wishes.
The rituals of the festival are rigorous and are observed over a period of four days.
They include holy bathing, fasting and abstaining from drinking water (Vratta), standing in water for long periods of time, and offering prasad (prayer offerings) and ‘arghya’ to the setting and rising sun. Some devotees also perform a prostration march as they head for the river banks.
The fasts are undertaken both by men and women and lasts sometime for 36 hours with devotees even abstaining from drinking water during the event.
“Our festival ends on the morning of the fourth day with prayers by devotees to the rising sun (Usha). We pray to the Sun God (Surya) and to Chathhi Mai (who is the embodiment of 5 other Gods including Durga, Saraswati, among others) for their blessings in our lives,” informed organisers of the Chhath Puja committee.
