'Our priority is smooth conduct of rituals': Darshan to stop for 3 hours on New Year for Puri deities to ‘sleep’

BHUBANESWAR: Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra will not be kept ‘fully awake’ past midnight on New Year. Following outcry over the practice, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) announced on Monday that the temple will close at 11 pm on Dec 31 and reopen at 2 am on Jan 1, allowing the deities 3 hours of rest.“Our priority is the smooth conduct of rituals. The temple will follow its prescribed schedule, and the deities will not remain awake through the intervening night,” said Arabinda Kumar Padhee, chief administrator of SJTA.The decision came a day after Mahesh Kumar Sahu, a member of the Jagannath Temple managing committee, the shrine’s apex decision-making body, wrote to the govt to discontinue the practice of keeping the shrine open all night for New Year darshan. Sahu argued that New Year celebrations are rooted in Western traditions and should not interfere with the temple’s age-old rituals.In recent years, the temple administration has allowed devotees to offer darshan throughout the night of Dec 31 till Jan 1 morning, citing crowd management needs. However, the move has drawn criticism from those backing Sahu’s proposal, who felt it compromised ritual sanctity.Law minister Prithiviraj Harichandan assured that adequate arrangements are in place to handle the festive rush. “The number of devotees visiting Lord Jagannath rises steadily with every festival. We are committed to managing darshan smoothly. Based on this, the temple administration has framed specific rules to regulate New Year celebrations,” he said.