The districts of North Karnataka witnessed subdued celebrations of Id Ul Fitr, Basava Jayanti and Akshaya Tritiya on Friday because of the lockdown regulations. The celebrations were limited to their respective houses.
As no religious congregations were allowed on account of the second wave of COVID-19, no mass prayers were held by the members of the Muslim community. Id prayers were offered by the people at their homes as even mosques were closed because of the pandemic. Several Muslim leaders posted photographs of them offering namaz at their homes while maintaining physical distance.
The ‘Basava Jayanti’ processions and programmes in residential localities were missing this time because of the pandemic. People used to make a beeline before the statue of 12th century reformer Basavanna or Basaveshwara to garland and pay tributes to him. This time following the strict lockdown guidelines people chose to remain at home. Only few political leaders and followers of Basvanna garlanded the statue to mark the occasion and celebrations at government offices were simple ones with only few being asked to attend.
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Basava Kendras, branches of Akhil Bharat Veershaiva Mahasabha and Jagatika Lingayat Mahasabha celebrated the birth anniversary in a simple manner with small talks with only few members participating. Online programmes to mark ‘Basava Jayanti’ were held by various organisations. Followers of Basavanna also took to Twitter and other social media to launch an online campaign to highlight the teachings of Basavanna.
With gold shops being closed, Akshaya Tritiya celebrations were limited to rituals at home and those who had planned to buy old on the auspicious day could not do so.