People throng temples, churches across State on New Year Day

Hyderabad : Thousands of people thronged temples and churches in the twin cities on Friday on the occasion of New Year Day. The New Year ushered in amidst colourful celebrations and exchange of greetings since Thursday night. Special prayers were held in the churches at midnight last night to welcome the New Year. Special programmes were held on Friday morning and the people greeted each other with ‘Happy New Year’ wishes.

The pilgrim centres in both Telugu States witnessed huge crowds. Special arrangements were made at the shrines like Tirumala, Srikalahasti, Vijayawada, Vemulawada and Yadagirigutta for the pilgrims to have darshan of Lord Venkateswara, Goddess Kanaka Durga, Raja Rajeswara Swamy and Narasimha Swamy respectively. In Srikalahasti, devotees started pouring in at the Vayu Lingeshwara Swamy since early morning for darshan.

In Vijayawada, hundreds of devotees visited the temple of Bhramaramba and Sri Mallikarjuna Swamy atop Indrakeeladri and offered special prayers. In twin cities, devotees in large numbers visited Birla Mandir and other temples and offered prayers.

The temples were tastefully decorated for the occasion. Saibaba temples at Dilsukhnagar, Chaderghat, Punjagutta and other localities, Ganesh temple in Secunderabad, Shankar Mutt at Nallakunta, the temples in Filmnagar, Jagannath temple in Banjara Hills, Peddamma temple in Jubilee Hills, Balaji Bhavan (Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple) at Himayathnagar and other temples in various localities.