A sea of humanity descended at R.K. Beach and Rushikonda from the wee hours of Saturday after Sivaratri to take a holy dip in the sea before commencing the puja.
The dark of the pre-dawn hours woke up to the chanting of hymns of thousands of devotees, who stayed awake throughout the night to invoke the blessings of Lord Siva.
Long queues were witnessed even before the break of dawn at the beach. Swings and slides sprang up overnight at R.K. Beach with the children and youth having a gala time as part of the festive celebrations.
“Sivaratri is a big festival for our family and we never miss the ‘jagran’. We came here to the Beach at 11 p.m. on Friday. This time we gathered at the beach with 40 family members and stayed up throughout the night,” said K. Lakshmi, a homemaker, who came to R.K.Beach from Arilova. While the youth took the holy dip, the elderly sat on the shores of the beaches, where they poured water over themselves with traditional copper vessels.
Sand sculptures
Large crowd gathered at R.K. beaches to have a look at the huge ‘Sivalingam’ made up of 1 crore small ‘Sivalingams’ installed by the TSR Lalita Kala Parishat where the ‘Mahakumbhabhishekam’ was performed. Sand sculptures of ‘Sivalingam’ dotted the beach where devotees prayed with deepams and flowers. Siva temples in the city burst at their seams as crowds milled from every nook and corner. Some service organisations distributed tamarind rice and ‘prasadam’ to the devotees on Friday night. A tight security was provided for maintaining law and order.
