A video showing a huge crowd pulling a chariot is being shared on social media with a claim that it shows the annual Jagannath Rath Yatra of 2022 held in Odisha's Puri.
The annual Rath Yatra of the holy trinity – Lord Balabhadra, Devi Subhadra, and Lord Jagannath – began on 1 July. After a hiatus of two years due to COVID-19, the Rath Yatra was taken out this year in Puri.
However, we could trace the video back to 2018, and the video showed the annual festival Chithirai Thiruvizha held at the Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple in Madurai.
CLAIM
The video is being shared along with the claim that it shows the Jagannath Rath Yatra in Puri, and crores of devotees have come to pull the chariot.
An archive of the post can be seen here.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND
We looked closely at the text that can be seen in the hoardings and found that it was in Tamil.
The text seen in the hoardings is in Tamil.
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
With the help of The Quint's reporter, we were able to identify that the video was from an annual festival known as Chithirai Thiruvizha, held in Madurai.
Next, we looked with keywords on YouTube and found the same video posted on a channel in 2018.
The titled mentioned that it was the 'Chithirai Thiruvizha' festival from 2018.
Viral video (L), Screengrab from BBC Tamil (R).
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
News reports about the festival were carried in The Hindu and The New Indian Express, where one can also see the same chariot.
Further, we also reached out to a Madurai-based freelance journalist named Gokul Vannan B who confirmed to The Quint that it is the annual Chithirai festival held at the Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple in Madurai.
Clearly, an old video of a religious festival from Madurai is being shared on social media with the false claim that is shows the 2022 Jagannath Rath Yatra.
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