Two major Indian-themed festivals are held in Budapest this weekend, the Chariot Festival and the India Festival. Both programmes are free to attend, as Turizmus.hu reports.
The former, the Ratha-yātrā Chariot Festival, starts at 2pm on Saturday, 26 June, with the drawing of a chariot from Vörösmarty Square through Andrássy Avenue right to City Park. The carriage will be accompanied by dancers and musicians.
Once the parade gets to the Boating Lake in City Park, it will merge with the India Festival,
which is scheduled to last from 12pm until 10pm at night on the same day. Traditional Indian food and music will be available to the attendees, as well as yoga demonstrations and yoga philosophy lectures. Certain food tents on site will have traditional Mediterranean and Hungarian food as well. At 7pm, a Kirtan Fest mantra concert will start.
The tradition of the Chariot Festival goes back around 5,000 years, to the city of Puri in Odisha, India. According to the tradition, the festival celebrates Lord Krishna’s return to the town of Vrindavan, a place symbolic of an eternal spiritual place which encumbers everything and is transcendental in Krishna culture. The festival was first held outside India in 1967 in San Francisco, California.
This is the 28th time that the Ratha-yātrā Chariot Festival is held in Budapest, Hungary.
Related articles:
