The Congress and MNS refrained from whipping up any controversy ahead of the civic polls
On the last day of the ongoing Chhat puja, a four-day religious ceremony, thousands gathered at various beaches and talaos in the city on Tuesday.
In Juhu, over 40,000 people arrived with offerings to the Sun God.
A Hindu festival prominent in north India, particularly
Bihar, Chhat puja involves paying obeisance to the Sun god.
Devotees begin prayers four days after Diwali and engage in rigorous fasting.
They also make offerings (aragh) of coconut, sweets (thekua) and fruits in small bamboo winnows (soop) that are left afloat in the water.
“Today we ensure that we fast all day. One cloth is wrapped around our body and we offer milk to the Sun God after beginning the fast on Monday night. The fast is finally broken only after we pray to the Sun God on Wednesday morning,” said Kiran Singh, who arrived at Juhu beach on Tuesday evening to make her offering.
“This is the only festival in which the Sun God is prayed to when rising and setting. If we have any wishes, we ask him to fulfill it. I normally do not make a wish. I only ask him to keep me happy
so that I and my family members can keep praying to him,” said Raseela Singh, a Thane resident.
Singh performed the ceremony in an artificial pond created in her housing society.
“I have a wish in mind and for that I am going to give extra fruits this time. Once you fast for this puja, you must do it every year. One must not stop doing it,” Singh added. Some like Ragini Gautam do not fast precisely for this reason.
“Once you start, you have to do it all the time. I am not doing it because of that. My mom does it instead,” she said.
In the run-up to the Chhat Puja, Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers had torn up posters and hoardings of Congress member of Parliament Sanjay Nirupam who organises the
Chhat Puja ceremony at Juhu beach every year, over the issue of outsiders versus the Marathi manoos.
However, both MNS and Shiv Sena refrained from violence during the north Indian festival.
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