Rakher Upobash Festival

Vendors are sitting with banana leaves, flowers, paddy-Durva grass, clay oil lamps, ghee (clarified butter), green coconut, and milk substances. As the sun leans west, the crowd enhances. By pouring milk and burning incense sticks, women and boys initiate the celebrations. The fruits brought from home are kept in front of Loknath Baba’s idol for a while.  Then everyone sits in a row with those lamps with them in the open ground. In front, A ghee lamp is placed on a banana leaf. As many loved ones are being prayed for protection from danger, only to that amount oil lamps are lit. Several lamps can be witnessed like two-four-ten-twenty and so on. Various colored cut fruits are arranged around.  As the sunset unfolds, the bell starts ringing. Through uludvani(sound played with the mouth), everyone collectively starts lighting the lamp.  Hundreds of lamps illuminate together. The surrounding witnessed from above is inscrutable.  A dance of light began throughout the area.  The day-long fast is broken after offering the lamp.  Devotees of Loknath Baba observe this fast for the well-being of their loved ones.  To prevent cholera and chickenpox Baba Loknath instructed the observance of fasting during the month of Kartika and the lighting of ghee lamps along with the burning of incense in the ashram premises.  Since then, this festival has been celebrated every year in the month of Kartika at Baradi Loknath Baba Ashram in Sonargaon.  This ritual, known by the name ‘Rakher Upabas’, is also referred to by some as ‘Kartika Vrat’. From the 15th to 30th of Kartika – this ritual is observed every Saturday and Tuesday throughout these 15 days. To observe the ritual of Kartika Vrat at Baba Loknath’s Samadhi Temple, People come long before evening to find a good place to settle.  As evening approaches, the wax lamps are slowly lit in preparation for lighting the ghee lamps. Then, the bells chime and the clay lamps filled with ghee start flickering. In the midst of darkness, the smoke from the burning coconut shells and the light from the ghee lamps seems to create a spiritual aura. At one point Ghee in the vassals runs out, along with that the glow of light also comes to an end. Subsequently, through the act of feasting, the festival reaches its graceful end.