People from different districts of North Karnataka including Dharwad, Haveri and Gadag, celebrated ‘Mahashivaratri’ festival with religious fervour on Tuesday.
As it has been a practice, people lined before Shiva Temples in their neighbourhood from early in the morning and offered pujas. Accordingly temple committees had made arrangements for them to take ‘darshan’ of idol of Lord Shiva.
In all the Shiva temples across the region, varius rituals were scheduled for the day and people took part in these rituals either individually or in groups. The chanting of ‘Om Namah Shivaya’ reverberated in the air throughout the day and also at night.
As devotees undertake one day fasting as part of the festival, in most of the Shiva temples, committee members offered fruits and dates as ‘prasada’ to them. As COVID norms have been relaxed, the visitors to these temples had increased manifold this year.
In Hubballi, where the annual car festival of Sri Siddharoodh Swami happens on the next day of the Shivaratri, thousands of people were seen conducting ‘padayatra’ to the mutt. Although the Trust committee has changed the timing of the car festival and scheduled it during early hours mainly to dissuade people from coming in large numbers, it seems to have not many impact. Large number of people are pouring into the city a day in advance and on Tuesday scores of such groups were seen marching to the mutt.
Meanwhile the gigantic statue of Lord Shiva at Shivapura Colony off Gokul Road in Hubballi also attracted many people like seen during Pre-COVID days. People clicking selfies before the statue after offering puja was a common site.
As people conduct ‘jagarane’, chanting Lord’s name throughout the night, the temple committees had made arrangements accordingly. Despite restrictions Siddharoodh Mutt witnessed large crowd on Tuesday. Meanwhile Lingayat organisations conducted mass ‘Ishtalinga Puja’ as part of the celebrations in villages, towns and cities across the region.
