Bhimsen Jatra celebrated in Patan

The Newar community of Lalitpur celebrated the Bhimsen Jatra festival with great enthusiasm on Tuesday. During the festival, devotees carry palquine to the places where the statue of Bhimsen is located. While passing through Patan Durbar Square in Lalitpur, devotees carry palquine and burn incense sticks.

The Bhimsen Jatra festival is celebrated in Patan every year on the midnight of the ninth day of the Bhadra Krishna Pachaya.

God Bhimsena is said to be the god of commerce and industry, and fortune. People from the business sector worship God Bhimsena believing it will bring prosperity to their businesses.

The worship on the day of ‘Bhimsen Jatra’ begins with the priest bringing down the idol of the Lord from the third floor of the three-storeyed temple in Mangal Bazaar in Patan and then fixing it on the chariot, which is set ready for the outing of the main deity.

Then the devotees carry the deity on shoulder poles across town with musical bands playing traditional Newari devotional music. Some sing devotional songs all through the journey till the chariot is brought back to the temple.