June

Rath Yatra (Puri, Orissa) June 24

Ratha Jatra, the Festival of Chariots of Lord Jagannatha is celebrated every year at Puri, the temple town in Orissa, on the east coast of India. The presiding deities of the main temple, Sri Mandira, Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra, with the celestial wheel Sudarshana are taken out from the temple precincts in an elaborate ritual procession to their respective chariots. The huge, colourfully decorated chariots, are drawn by hundreds and thousands of devotees on the bada danda, the grand avenue to the Gundicha temple, some two miles away to the North. After a stay for seven days, the deities return to their abode in Srimandira.

Amarnath Yatra (Jammu and Kashmir) June 30 onwards

Amarnath is a cave shrine, situated in the Northern State of Jammu and Kashmir. Pilgrimage is organised to this holy shrine coinciding with Sravana Pournima. The Shivalingam at Amarnath is formed of ice and it is popularly known as ICELINGAM. It is the firm belief and trust of Hindus that those who are able to visit this shrine will have no re-birth. One of the holy trinity, Shiva is a living God. The most sacred and most ancient book of India, the Rig-Veda evokes his presence in its hymns. Vedic myths, ritual and even astronomy testify to his existence from the dawn of time. But Shiva, the destroyer, the mendicant, is undefinable: he is the great yogi, the guardian of the absolute. His actions are the themes of the myths in which his nature unfolds.