The nine-day festival of fire deity Maa Hingula and the 12th loka Mahotsav is underway at the Gopal Gada from Sunday and will end on Monday. lakhs of devotees from various places in and outside the State throng the place every day for darshan of Goddess Hingula.
The famous festival of Maa Hingula is observed every year on Chaitra Sukla Chaturdashi, in which the goddess gives darshan to her devotees in a state of burning fire near her temple at Gopalprasad, on the river bank of Singada in Talcher sub-division of Angul district.
Goddess Hingula had appeared on the backside of her temple on April 4 last and Dehury, the worshipper, had been worshipping the goddess since then. However, from the Chaturdashi, devotees are coming to the place in queues and worshiping the goddess by offering coconuts, ghee, milk, cheese, special Bhog, clothes, vermillion, sandalwood paste, bangles and cowries etc into the burning flames. Goddess Hingula is worshiped by the people both inside and outside the temple once in a year for nine days from the Chaitra Sukla Chaturdashi. Besides, hundreds of kids sit in tandem at the nearby site, where barbers save their heads.
Besides, police forces and volunteers have been deployed to maintain peace and discipline and control heavy crowd on the occasion. Due to model code of conduct for elections, the cultural programme of the 12th loka Mahotshav has been reduced to four days.