Lso known as Car Festival, this spectacular Chariot Festival is celebrated in the month of Asadha, on the second day of the lunar fortnight that falls during June-July. Popularly known as Rath Yatra, this festival is celebrated in the honor of Lord Jagannath who is believed to be an incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

The celebrated Ratha Yatra Festival is said to have started in the time of Svarochisha Manu of the second manvantara and is predicted to continue until the end of the second half of Lord Brahma's lifetime. Even in the Valmiki Ramayana, it is mentioned that when Lord Rama was getting ready to leave this world, he told Vibhishan, Ravana's younger brother, to worship Lord Jagannatha, the Lord of the Iksvaku dynasty in His absence.

The Skanda Purana also fixes the date of the Ratha Yatra as the second day of the bright fortnight if the month of Ashadha, a day called Pushyami Nakshatra by astrological calculations. The Padma Purana describes that in Purushottama-Kshetra, or Jag ...more