Car fest craze on social media of top 10 trends, 6 on yatra in twitter

As the Lord of the universe made his move on his mighty chariot Nandighosa, the world famous Rath Yatra turned out to be the most trending topic on social media on Saturday.

The scene in front of Iskcon Temple in Bhubaneswar

BHUBANESWAR: As the Lord of the universe made his move on his mighty chariot Nandighosa, the world famous Rath Yatra turned out to be the most trending topic on social media on Saturday.
The hashtags on the annual sojourn of Lord Jagannath, brother Lord Balabhadra and sister Devi Subhadra continued to trend on Twitter in three languages - English, Odia and Hindi. Of the Top-10 tending topics, six were on the Car Festival.

Perhaps for the first time ‘Ratha Jatra’ written in Odia font was trending for hours together with Odias from across the globe exchanging greetings with the hashtag.

chariot pulling at Dolamundai | Express

The hashtags which were trending throughout the day include #Puri, #LordJagannath, #RathYatra, #RathaJatra, #JaiJagannath and #MayLordJagannath. The hit was all time high as #RathYatra topped the trending list for seven hours with more than 42,000 tweets and lakhs of mentions.

Along with thousands of devotees, politicians and celebrities also took to the social media to greet people and seek blessings on the auspicious occasion.

President Ram Nath Kovind wished people in three languages - English, Hindi and Odia. “As the Rath Yatra festivities begins, greetings and best wishes to fellow citizens. May the blessings of Lord Jagannath bring peace, happiness and prosperity to everyone’s lives,” he tweeted. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also greeted people on twitter. “With the blessings of LordJagannath, may our country scale new heights of growth. May every Indian be happy and prosperous,” he wrote.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wished people on the occasion of holy Rath Yatra in both Odia and English. “May #LordJagannath guide us on path of peace, prosperity and unity,” he prayed. Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan and Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Jual Oram also extended greetings. Pradhan went live on his twitter account and gave live commentary on the importance and significance of the event in Hindi. Several Union Ministers, chief ministers of other states and cricketers Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman also greeted people.

A group of Odias also chose twitter to appeal social media users to use the hashtag #RathaJatra instead of #RathYatra.