Chandigarh temples scale up Janmashtami celebrations

While Janmashtami celebrations remained a low-key affair last year as the city battled the first Covid wave, more participation is expected from people this time

While Janmashtami celebrations remained a low-key affair last year as the city battled the first Covid wave, more participation is expected from people this time.

Almost all temples will celebrate the festival while adhering to Covid safety norms.

City president of Hindu Parv Mahasabha, BP Arora said, “All temples will hold events between 10pm and 12am and some functions will be organised in the daytime too. Footfall has started increasing and we have also begun a weekly langar.”

ISKCON temple in Sector 36 will also be open for the devotees this year.

Akrur Nandan Das, president of the temple, said, “We have put up barricades going up to a kilometre from the temple’s entrance to ensure that we can control the crowd. Devotees will be allowed to pay obeisance on Monday, but they’ll have to leave immediately and there will be no seating arrangement in the temple, even for langar.”

Like last year, all ceremonies will be live-streamed.

Though in previous years, carnivals used to be organised in various parts of the city, no such event will take place this time, said Hindu Parv Mahasabha chief Arora. However, a few ‘jhankis’ will be there outside some of the temples for children, he added.

Meanwhile, Shyam Sunder, joint secretary of Sri Laxmi Narayan Temple in Sector 20, said he doesn’t expect many children to come in for the celebrations as parents are still wary of the virus as the kids haven’t been vaccinated yet.