Visuba Sankranti celebrated with special beverage Pana

The temples across the State were decked up for the celebration of the Maha Visuba Sankranti and Hindu New Year on April 14.

The day is also popularly known as Pana Sankranti when the traditional beverage ‘Pana’ prepared with Bel fruit is distributed among the devotees in temples. Another significance of the day is release of Odia almanac for the Hindu year. The book is collected to know the right day to perform any auspicious event such as marriage, sacred thread wearing, religious festivals and even agricultural operation. The day is called as Maha Vishuba due to the change of position in the Sun’s path and is, therefore, observed in mid-April every year. Temples across the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar witnessed beelines of devotees since morning to have Darshan of the deities.

Especially, the Panchamukhi Mahaveer temple at Khannagar in Cuttack, which celebrated its 99 years on the day, attracted devotees in large numbers. As per the tradition, Prabhat Alati (worship performed during dawn) was completed before sunrise as lord Hanuman was born at this time. Similar crowds were also witnessed at the CRP Square Hanuman temple and the Ram Mandir at Unit III in Bhubaneswar.

Similarly, special rituals were held at the Shree Jagannath Temple at Puri on the auspicious day. Various cultural programmes including Bhajan Samarohs, discourses on Ramayana were organised at different temples to celebrate the day.