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The festival dedicated to spiritual and academic teachers, Guru Purnima will fall on 19 July this year. It is an important Hindu festival as it has both religious and spiritual significance. It is traditionally celebrated in India and Nepal by Hindu, Jain and Buddhist community. According to Hindu calendar, this festival is celebrated in the Hindu month of Ashadha which is June–July on full moon day which is also called Purnima. The Guru word is made up of two words and translates from Sanskrit to the one who removes the darkness of our ignorance. The celebration begins with Guru Puja and has a great importance in India.

Different communities have different reasons for Guru Purnima celebration. The Buddhists celebrate this festival in honor of the lord Buddha who gave his first sermon on this day at Sarnath (Uttar Pradesh, India). The saint (yogi) community celebrates the day as the occasion when Shiva became the first guru, as he began the transmission of yoga to the Saptarishis. Hindus celebrate the day in honor of the great sage Vyasa, who is seen as one of the greatest gurus in ancient Hindu traditions and a symbol of the Guru-shishya tradition. The wandering monks (sanyasis) also observe this day by offering puja to their guru.

The legends behind the festival also vary from community to community. In Hindu legend, Guru Purnima is the day of birth of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, the author of the Mahabharata. In the yogic teachings, it is day of birth of the Adi Guru, or the first Guru. According to Buddhist history, Buddha gave his first sermon to the five monks on this day. In India, the spiritual Gurus are respected on this day by a remembering their life and teachings.

This year, the annual Jagannath Puri Yatra will start at 6^th July. This Hindu festival will be held in Puri city in Odisha, India. The oldest rath yatra in the world that dates back to 10^th century is associated with Lord Jagannath and is celebrated on ‘Ashadha Shukla Paksha Dwitiya’ according to the Hindu calendar. The three deities of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are taken out in a grand procession from their home temple, Jagannath Temple, to Gundicha Temple where these deities stay for nine days. Afterwards, the rath yatra carrying the deities returns back to the home temple.

Rath Yatra translates to Chariot journey and is very important festival in Puri. Thousands of devotees come to Puri every year to be a part of this amazing rath yatra. During the festival, three well decorated rath (chariots) that resembles the structure of a temple are pulled through the streets of Puri that marks the journey of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra, and their sister Subhadra to Gundicha Temple which is their aunt’s temple. Thousands of devotees come to Puri in order to help pull the Lord’s Rath which is considered a sacred deed. Devotional songs among drums, tambourines, trumpets, etc are played throughout the yatra.

Wood from special trees like phassi, dhausa, etc are used to create the three chariots for Balarama, Subhadra and Jagannatha. These chariots are decorated as per the unique scheme prescribed and followed for centuries stand on the Bada Danda, the Grand Avenue.