If you experienced the crowd in my post yesterday, then you definitely know how crazy people are here, and that can happen only when one is very devoted. People consider it very auspicious to be part of this greatest festival of God, Puri being the main place. However, its celebrated at all places world wide, where ever there is a temple of Lord Jagannath. Same goes with my place, we have a small temple and here also we did have the Car festival, which I joined.
There are many theories behind why the Car Festival is celebrated. According to legend and mythology, after Lord Krishna's death, the Pandavas as his last kin, failed to burn the body because burning power of fire was incapable of dissolving the body of Lord Krishna. A void voice told them that Krishna's navel cannot be burnt in the fire, or destroyed by any means, so you throw it in the sea. So the Pandavas threw it in sea.
The half-burnt mass of Lord Krishna appeared in the form of a wood log floating in the sea and was discovered ( by being guided by the God himself in his dreams - there is a whole separate story behind that) by King Indradyumna, a passionate devotee of Lord Vishnu. The wood log was brought and placed in the Srigundicha temple, to make the idols of God. The king called in all his renowned architects to make the idols, but all of them expressed their inability. That is when the Lord Viswakarma (The God of Engineering) came himself in the form of an old sculptor to make the idol out of that wood log. However, he laid out a condition insisting that the door must not be opened for 21 days or until the statue are completed. Every day the king and queen would go and stand in front of the door , hear the sounds of idol making and come back happily. However, after few days, they stopped listening any sound. The queen out of curiosity, orders to open the door after fifteen days. And as soon as the door was opened, the old sculptor disappeared. The statues were half-finished and they remain like that. The king was very disheartened, but again guided by the Lord himself to establish them in the temple in the same form. And at that time the Lord directed : O king, bring me to my homeland once a year. That's why the God along with devotees go to Srigundicha temple in the Car Festival.
Again, these are all legends. But one more interesting fact you should know - when the Lord returns to his temple, a special event named Suna Besha takes place - they are fitted with 208 kgs of gold costume with which their limbs are seen to be like completed. May be I will do a post if its live broadcast.
And by the way, those people playing the bells are specially skilled, so don't try hard at home :)
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