BALTIMORE’S 12TH ANNUAL RATHAYATRA CHARIOT PARADE AND FESTIVAL OF INDIA
It is with great pleasure that I take this opportunity to invite you to attend Baltimore’s Annual Rathayatra Parade and Festival of India on Sunday, May 25th. The Parade begins at 12:00pm at the corner of Key Highway and Light Street behind the Science Center at the Inner Harbor, continuing up Light Street and ending at McKeldin Square on the corner of Pratt and Light Streets for the opening ceremonies of the Festival of India starting at 2pm.
The last eleven years of festivals were a grand success, drawing not only thousands of local Maryland participants, but people from as far as New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and even Florida. Local television stations and newspapers also covered the event. Over 2,500 plates of free vegetarian food were distributed to participants and passersby each year and the afternoon was filled with Indian style entertainment in the form of music, dance, song and drama. We were grateful to receive Citations of Appreciation from Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, former Senator John A. Giannetti Jr, former Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr and former Mayors Martin O’Malley’s and Sheila Dixon’s offices, and local Councilmen and Delegates from Catonsville personally attended. We received official Proclamations each year from the Mayor’s office proclaiming this day as Rathayatra Day.
This event is sponsored by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) of Baltimore, a non-profit religious organization since 1966. Your distinguished presence would make this event especially complete and successful, and we look forward in anticipation to your favorable response.
Attached are the poster / postcard and overview presentation for the festival. Please feel free to share.
Sincerely,
ISKCON Baltimore Rath Yatra Committee
This year you will have visitors from Santa Cruz, California. My son, Chaitanya das, is in grad school at College Park, Univ. of Maryland, and we will be visiting him then. Just as we attended previously at the Harrisburg, PA first two Rathayatras, so too we shall gladly be very happy to participate in Baltimore Rathayatra. Hare Krishna.
Pusta Krishna das and Daru Brahma dd