Jammu/Srinagar, Aug 22: Religious fervour on Monday marked the festival of Janmashtami, the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna, in Jammu city and its outskirts and in Kashmir.
 Soaked in devotion, people celebrated Janmashtami festival with festive rituals observing at homes and temples alike in the city- people young and old flying kites added more colours to the festive atmosphere. All the temples decorated with colourful buntings and lights witnessed heavy rush of devotees as people, including children and women thronged the temples since early morning.
 The management of some temples also organised special early morning and mid night prayers to mark the birth of Lord Krishna, while some organised “raas leela” to re-enact the episode of Lord Krishna and the Gopis.
 Grand Janmashtami celebrations took place at Laxmi-Narayan temple, both at Pacca Danga and Gandhi Nagar areas. At the birth time (12 midnight), the idol of Lord Krishna was to be placed in a grandly decorated cradle. Besides, religious discourse on ‘Krishna Leela’ took place at almost all temples.
 City markets also witnessed huge rush of customers as from buying traditional decorative items to flowers, ‘jhula’ (cradle) for Lord Krishna and collecting raw materials for special cuisines to fast on Janmashtami, women and young girls left no stone unturned to make the festival a memorable one.
 All main city markets came up with numerous shops selling different decorative and necessary edible commodities. From colourful cradles, wall hangings, golden bells to balloons, shops had all items to beautify the Lord.
 The shoppers were seen busy in purchasing variety of bansuri (flute), artificial jewellery and ornaments for decorating the idols of Lord Krishna, Shankha (conch shell), Pooja thali, the metal plate containing the ingredients necessary for worship and earthen ‘divas (lamps).
 Similarly, door hangings with pictures of Lord Krishna pasted over them, morpankh (peacock feather), pots containing butter and butter milk were also among the best seller.
 In Kashmir, people thronged temples in Srinagar city and at other places.
 Long queues were witnessed at Shankaracharya Temple and Hunuman Mandir at Amira Kadal where devotees paid obeisance.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 22 Aug 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 23 Aug 2011 00:00:00 IST