Sri Panihati Mahotsav or the Panihati Chida Dahi festival also known as the Chipped Rice Festival of Panihati celebrates the pastimes of Sri Raghunath Dasa Goswami and Lord Nityananda Prabhu. Panihati is located on the banks of the River Ganga near Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

The ISKCON Laguna Beach temple celebrated its annual Sri Panihati Mahotsav on Saturday, June 6th 2009. The devotees were honored to have the association of His Holiness Lokanath Swami Maharaj who came all the way from India to grace this occasion. The temple wore a festive look with the Sri Panca Tattva Deities beautifully decorated and Dahi Chida pots and plates offered at the altar. The festivities began with the initiation ceremony of John Boswall and the hair-cutting ceremony of young bhakta Kavi. HH Lokanath Swami Maharaj then explained the significance of this Mahotsav. During his lecture, HH treated the devotees to some melodious recitation of Bengali verses from the Caitanya Caritamrita.

Maharaj wonderfully explained the similarity between the celebration at the temple and the actual event 500 years ago. He explained, just as Panihati was at the banks of the River Ganga, we were at the Pacific Coast (Laguna Beach), in the presence of Sri Panca Tattva Deities. Further, the feast/pot sponsors were aspiring to follow in the footsteps of Raghunath Dasa Goswami, the vast number of devotees present was chanting HARI BOL, and they were being served Dahi Chida as in the original Panihati Mahotsav.

HH Lokanath Swami Maharaj followed his lecture by leading an ecstatic Kirtan. Devotees then honored a delicious and sumptuous Prasadam feast prepared by the temple cooks Rameshwar Das, Savita Mataji and congregation members Sacimata dd, Ananda Vrindavan dd, Premanjana dd, Bhaktin Anjali, Krishna Soni, Meena Patel, and Pushpanjali dd.

The Panihati Mahotsav was celebrated on a grand scale - thanks to the presence of HH Lokanath Swami Maharaj, the efforts of Tukaram Prabhu and all other devotees.