A Week in Faith

Ulto Ratha Yatra. Villa De Sanctis Park. Torpignattara, 19 July 2021

Migrant communities become active again after almost two years of forced immobility. Within a week I had the privilege – and the effort – of attending three different celebrations for three religions.

On July 12^th,  the Bangladeshi Hindu community of Torpignattara began celebrating, for 10 days, the great festival of Ratha Yatra, the Hindu festival celebrated in Odisha for Jagannath and associated Hindu deities.

His image, along with the other two associated deities, is ceremoniously brought out of the inner sanctum (Garbhagriha) of his chief temple in Jagannath Puri. They are placed in a chariot which is then pulled by numerous volunteers to the Gundicha Temple. Coinciding with the Ratha Yatra festival at Puri, similar processions are organized at Jagannath temples throughout the world.

I followed the celebrations in the two Roman temples, which concluded the great festival with the last day – called Ulto Ratha Yatra – on July 19 and 20, at the Sarbojonin Hindu Puja Mondir and the Om Hindu Mondir, with a final prayer in the nearby park of Villa De Sanctis under the rain.

On the July 20^th, morning there was also the Islamic celebration of Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, with the public prayer in Largo Raffaele Petazzoni and Largo Preneste also in Torpignattara, organized by the Bangladeshi, African, and Arab Islamic communities of the area.

This intense week ended, a few kilometers from Rome, in Poggio Nativo in the province of Rieti, in the vast estate in the hills of the “Santacittarama” Buddhist Monastery, where the Thai community offered gifts and prayed for the monks who are starting their retreat of meditation of three months in the monsoon period. The ceremony, called Kao Pansa, ended with the monks blessing the faithful.

This is a small selection of the best photographs, among over a thousand.

I hope this gallery is also a way to once again appreciate the richness of different cultures and religions.

 

With my personal desire to live in depth of a peaceful inclusivity between the colors of Hinduism, the rigor of Islam, and the serenity of Buddhism.

 

Ratha Yatra. Sarbojonin Hindu Puja Mondir. Torpignattara, 12 July 2021

Ulto Ratha Yatra. Om Hindu Mondir. Torpignattara, 19 July 2021

Ulto Ratha Yatra. Sarbojonin Hindu Puja Mondir. Torpignattara, 20 July 2021

Eid al-Adha. Largo Raffaele Petazzoni. Torpignattara, 20 July 2021

Eid al-Adha. Largo Preneste. Torpignattara, 20 July 2021

Kao Pansa. “Santacittarama” Buddhist Monastery. Poggio Nativo. Rieti, 25 July 2021