CHANDRABHAGA MELA
FAIRS OF INDIA – CHANDRABHAGA MELA
Magha Saptami which is also called Chandrabhaga Mela is a very popular fair in the month of February. It is also Called the Magha Saptami festival and is being observed on the 7th day of the new moon of Magha month. This is a day specially set aside for the worship of the Surya Devta at Konark. Although the temple is a ruin, even today many thousand of pilgrims flock to Konark every year on the Magha Sukla Saptami, and celebrate the new birth of the Suraya devta. When the Surya Dev has returned on its northern course, people assemble before sunrise to take bath in the sacred Chandrabhaga river.
This is a popular conglomeration of Konark and Orissa where, thousands of pilgrims from different parts of India and world visit to celebrate. In fact, this is the second largest festival in Orissa, next to the Car Festival of Puri. The pilgrims take holy dip in the Chandrabhaga and welcome the rising Surya Devta with prayers.
This is the most popular and colourful gettogether of the place when lakhs of pilgrims visit Konark and Orissa to observe the Chandrabhaga Mela.
