Children take part in rath yatra in heavy rain at Old Town in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Around 400 children gathered to celebrate rath yatra in the dusty by lanes of Old Town here.

Organised at Jameswarpatna, situated near Lingaraj temple, the uniqueness of this festival is that children between the age of seven and 12 are involved in all the nitty-gritty of the festival.

The kids do it all — from conducting the puja to taking out the procession, from taking part in the pahandi vijay to carrying and playing the traditional instruments on their own.

“The tradition of involving children in rath yatra here is as old as 10 years. The majority of the kids belong to the families of servitors of Lingaraj temple,” said president of the organising committee Lingaraj Sahoo.

“The intention is to keep alive the meaning and importance of this festival and our tradition among the children,” he said, adding that the children themselves decorated the chariot.

The idols of Lord Jagannath, Goddess Subhadra and Lord Balabhadra were carried to the decorated chariots, and much like the traditional style, the kids pulled the cars.

They took out the procession by dancing to the tunes of songs, singing bhajans and performing folk dances.

The procession is taken out from Jameswarpatna and it goes to Mausi Maa temple. The entire trip has six stops for bhoga and prasad, he said.

“Apart from imbibing a love for tradition, it also brings in the involvement of the children’s parents and other family members, who reach here to see their wards performing their roles in the chariot festival,” said general secretary of the committee Basanta Samartha.

“The most exciting part is the number of instruments we have during the chariot pulling. There is every thing - from DJ to the traditional ghanta,” said seven-year-old Antan Kumar Mohapatra.

Antan is all set to play the role of a kalisi, who would fan the horses.

Debiprasad Rath, who is in Class VI, will do cherra pahara (sweeping in front of the chariots) this time.

“I am quite excited. I look forward to this day every year. Tomorrow, I will have so much to share with my friends at school,” he said.