Mangaluru Dasara to be off-limits to children below six

MANGALURU: Famed Mangaluru Dasara getting underway at Kudroli Gokarnanatha Kshetra from Saturday will be off-limits for children aged below six years.
With the temple management committee already prepared for low-key celebration given the pandemic situation, the Dasara will get off to a traditional start with installation of idols of Goddess Sharada, Lord Ganapathi and the Navadurgas on Saturday, Padmaraj R, treasurer of the committee said.
Tradition will follow caution under the tagline –- Namma Dasara, Namma Surakshe. “The festival will be a success if all concerned take care of their personal safety,” Padmaraj said. “We do not want to compromise either on traditions associated with the festival or with the well-being of devotees coming to the Kshetra,” he said. This makes it all the more important for the devotees to follow all guidelines laid down for their welfare, he said.
The guidelines mandate every devotee coming to the temple to wear masks without which they will not be allowed inside. Every devotee will undergo thermal scanning at the entrance and those with fever, cold will not be allowed inside. Social distancing will be the norm inside the temple and in the hall where the idols will be set up. Devotees coming in groups are not allowed. Selfies inside the temple and the hall is completely banned, he said.
Able bodied senior citizens will be given priority and honour due to them in participating in the festival rituals. Devotees need to maintain social distancing at the stalls and parking lot. Devotees should desist from touching the idols of Navadurgas and other deities. Other elders and those with age related or other physical infirmities should skip the festival and be a part of the celebration in spirit by viewing the live telecast of the same, he said.
Prasad will be distributed at the glass house on the temple premises. ‘Anna prasad’ will be served in arecanut plates after afternoon mahapooja from 2.30pm. Devotees should discard the used plates in dustbins. All cultural programmes will be relayed live on local cable TV, Padmaraj said, while exhorting the devotees to follow every single instruction that team of volunteers give to them in the interest of society and to combat the pandemic.