Devotees walk on burning embers during rituals as part of festival in northern India
by Surya PrakashDevotees worshipping Naina Devi walked on burning embers as part of ritualistic celebrations in northern India’s Himachal Pradesh.
This happened in Peepalage village of Kullu district on July 26.
Visuals showed scenes during the festival, also known as the ‘Mata Naina Jaag Utsav.’ Devotees engaged in ‘aarti’ of the Goddess with some lighting up the pyre on which the people would later walk. Loud drums were played in the background that created a festive atmosphere and later, some of the devotees were seen carrying an idol in a palanquin and circling the pyre. Later, they were seen walking on top of it with the palanquin on their shoulders.
Some individual devotees also walked up and moved across the burning wood again and again and surprisingly, none seemed to experience any sort of pain whatsoever despite repeating this process a number of times.
Priest Amit Mahajan shared that other goddesses like Mata Bhadrakali, Mata Koyla, Mata Sheetla, Mata Chakreshwari were also worshipped. He also stated that people from all over the state of Himachal Pradesh come for the festival. Surprisingly, he also claimed that none of the devotees who have walked on fire have had their feet burnt or damaged.
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