PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, April 8: Over a lakh devotees offered the evening and morning arghya on Chaiti Chhath at Subernarekha and other river ghats in and around the steel city.
The four-day festival which began with ‘Nahaye Khaye’ on April 5, Tuesday concluded today with devotees thronging to river ghats and other water bodies to offer obeisance to the Sun God early in the morning.
Some devotees preferred to stay overnight at the Subernarekha river ghat in Mango.
Chhath includes austere rituals that include walking barefoot. Therefore, the river ghats were cleaned before the festival. Rituals of Chaiti Chhath are quite similar to chhath puja and is observed largely by women.
Devotees offered arghya in mostly eight ghats near the river bank among which the Subernarekha ghat is the most popular.
The district administration, urban local bodies like Mango Notified Area Committee, Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee and private corporate had installed lights along the approach road to the ghats and divers were deployed at danger zones to prevent mishaps.
The festival had lost its sheen during the past two years due to the Covid-19 induced pandemic.