Thousands of people made a beeline for temples across the state on Tuesday on the occasion of Makar Sankranti.
The temples which drew the maximum crowd were the Puri Shree Jagannath Temple, Lingaraj Temple and Ananta Vasudev Temple in Bhubaneswar, Nila Madhav Temple in Kantilo, Hatakeswara Siva Temple Temple in Khurda, Shree Jagannath Temple in Baripada and other major temples in the state. The devotees sought the blessings of the deities as well as the prasad of the temples.
While more than 50,000 people turned up at Lingaraj and Ananta Vasudev temples in Bhubaneswar, more than two lakh people turned up at Puri Shree Jagannath Temple to receive the maha prasad on Tuesday.
At Ananta Vasudev temple, the bhog or prasad was almost ready by 11.30am and the food delivery process started by 12pm after the bhog was offered to the presiding deity. “One can have food for ₹100. But there was quite a rush, and it's difficult to get space with your family inside the Ananta Basudev Temple,” said a devotee, Dillip Mohanty, 61.
To ensure that quality food is being served to the people, the Puri Shree Jagananth Temple administration ensured its officials inspect the Ananda Bazar regularly and check the quality of the foods served as Mahaprasad.
Seeing the massive rush of devotees, the Puri temple administration deferred the implementation of some of their reform measures. As per the decision, the "new darshan" will be implemented after January 20th.
In the tribal dominated districts, people celebrated the Makra Sankranti by actively participating in the cock fights, a popular sports in tribal areas.