The 43rd Annual Festival of India started with a parade down Yonge Street from Bloor to Queens Quay on Saturday afternoon.
The parade is similar to an annual procession that has occurred for centuries in the city of Puri, India as part of a Hindu festival associated with the god Jagannath. Here in Toronto, as in Puri, three chariots constructed to look like temples are pulled through the streets in a procession from one temple to another. Each chariot carries a richly decorated representation of a god, first is Jagannatha (another name for Krishna or God) and then his brother Baladeva and his sister Subhadra. The chariots are pulled by people and the procession symbolizes the pulling of the Lord into our hearts.
In Puri, this Ratha-Yatra procession continues to attract over a million people every year.
In Toronto, the numbers aren’t quite that high!
below: Many people used ropes to pull the floats down Yonge Street.
below: Other people danced, walked, sang and chanted Hare Krishna mantras.
The festivities continued on Centre Island for the remainder of the weekend.
as I walk Toronto 
[…] below: This parade for Ratha Yatra is an annual event. A more complete description of the parade, as well as some photos from 2016, can be found on a blog post that I wrote three years ago (how time flies!), or even older, is a post from 2015. […]