SHAS­TRI BOODAN

This Sat­ur­day the In­ter­na­tion­al So­ci­ety for Kr­ish­na Con­scious­ness (ISKCON) will host its 22nd an­nu­al Ratha Ya­tra or Fes­ti­val of Char­i­ots. The fes­ti­val has been cel­e­brat­ed by devo­tees of Lord Kr­ish­na for thou­sands of years and has its roots in Ja­gan­natha Puri, In­dia, where devo­tees glo­ri­fy Lord Kr­ish­na in a pa­rade of 50-foot-high char­i­ots. The fes­ti­val has since spread across the globe. The first Ratha Ya­tra held out­side of In­dia took place on Ju­ly 9, 1967, in San Fran­cis­co. Since then, it is not un­com­mon to see colour­ful­ly paint­ed char­i­ots, be­decked with flow­ers and gar­lands and ac­com­pa­nied by en­thu­si­as­tic chant­i­ng by devo­tees through cities and towns in coun­tries that have em­braced the ISKCON move­ment. Sat­ur­day's pro­ces­sion starts at 9 am at the cor­ner of Derek Road and the South­ern Main Road, Chase Vil­lage, Ch­agua­nas, and will pro­ceed along the Old South­ern Main Road to the Cen­tre Pointe Mall, Ch­agua­nas. The pro­gramme com­pris­es a lec­ture, dance and dra­ma.