Kathmandu: A massive crowd of devotees queued from early morning to offer prayers and worship Lord Shiva at the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu on Sunday on the occasion of Mahashivaratri, one of the most revered Hindu festivals in Nepal.
Pashupatinath is venerated as one of the supreme Shiva pilgrimage sites, alongside Kedarnath and Kashi Vishwanath. Devotees, particularly from Nepal and India, as well as from other regions, visit the Pashupatinath Temple during the festival.
From early morning, thousands of pilgrims from across Nepal and neighbouring India lined up to offer worship at the sacred temple premises, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The air was filled with chants of “Om Namah Shivaya”, as sadhus, saints, and devotees performed traditional rituals, creating a vibrant and spiritual atmosphere around the temple complex.
“Devotees have been queuing to offer prayers to Lord Shiva since early morning, and the crowd is steadily growing,” Shubhas Chandra Joshi, executive director of the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT), said. “By 9.30 am, an estimated 100,000 devotees had already offered prayers.”
To facilitate a smooth flow of worshippers, all four doors of the temple were opened as early as 2 am, according to Joshi.
He said that at least 3,000 Hindu saints, particularly from Nepal and India, have arrived in the Pashupati area, where they are performing special religious and spiritual practices symbolising devotion, renunciation, and spiritual discipline.
Shivaratri is observed today by Hindus in various countries, including Nepal and India, and is regarded as one of the greatest festivals in the holy Hindu scriptures, the Puranas. Falling in the lunar month of Falgun, the day is believed to instil faith in those destined to face hardships.
The Skanda Purana also mentions the significance of Shivaratri.
