Ekadashi Festival

Celebration of Ashadi Ekadashi In Pandharpur, Wednesday is regarded as the auspicious day in the week and Ekadashi, the auspicious day in the month. The Aashadi, Kartiki, Magh and Chaitra Ekadashis are the four major festivals of the temple. Out of these four, the first two festivals attract a large crowd about 8 to 10 lakhs. Apart from these, festivals like Gudipadwa, Ramanavami, Dasara and Deepawali are also celebrated. There are three major events Ashadhi Ekadashi i.e immediately after onset of Monsoon season. All the farmers complete their pre mansoon farming works. All the Warkaris (pilgrims) visit Pandharpur Pilgrim Centre from allover India including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamilnadu, and Andhra Pradesh. States. It is a very big long march of Warkaris (Pilgrims) from the various other pilgrim centre from Maharashtra The worshipers of Vitthal perform a pilgrimage to Pandharpur, the place of Vitthal. This holy journey from the places of different saints – Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram, etc. around 40 in number, to Pandharpur is called Wari to Pandharpur. The people who perform this vari are called as varkari. Varkari’s are worshipers of Vitthal. This

Now each small group of varkari, called Dindi, has their own sequence number in the Wari to Pandharpur, and they have to walk at designated place only. When palakhi is about to start, each Dindi stands at their designated place and then start walking in same sequence. By the time the Vari reaches to a stop prior to Pandharpur, there are around 7 to 8 lakhs (around 0.7 to 0.8 million) Varkari in Vari. Managing so many people is gigantic task. This sequencing system works perfectly to manage such a huge number of people. In addition to this, plan of each day is already worked out, and it is followed by each Varkari and