Hundreds take to Halifax streets celebrating historic Ratha Yatra Festival

Halifax hosted its second annual Ratha Yatra Festival on Saturday, as a large chariot was seen being carried throughout the city.

Hundreds of people took to the streets of Halifax on Saturday to chant, dance, and dine as they took part in one of the oldest and largest Hindu celebrations.

The Ratha Yatra Festival, also known as the Festival of the Chariots, has been celebrated by millions worldwide between June and July for thousands of years. This year’s parade was organized by Halifax’s branch of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a Hindu religious organization, for its second year in the city.

Vrnda Devi Dasi, a supervisor for the group hosting the celebration, said despite it being only her second time in Halifax she was “really happy” to see the number of people out in good spirits.

“This is the second time Halifax has hosted this festival, which is taking over all across the world,” she said, adding that it exclusively took place in one Indian city for about 5,000 years before it expanded further internationally into cities like London, U.K. and San Francisco in the mid-1970s.

Dasi added that one of the most interesting takeaways from the day’s events was the noticeable diversity in the turnout.

“Here today, there are a lot of people whose background is from India … but there’s also people who’ve embraced this festival and tradition from Ukraine … they’re Christan devotees from Ukraine but there with us now,” she said. “There’s just so much variety and diversity.”

Attendees gathered around noon near Citadel Hill before making their way throughout the city, while a decorative chariot followed closely behind as participants held onto an attached rope to guide the carriage through the streets.

Sitting inside the moving chariot is a 3-foot, wooden-carved deity that is referred to as Lord Jagannatha. This wooden icon is integral to the festival’s purpose, as it is typically carried to a nearby temple where it resides for a week.