For 24 hours, the village in Rohtak remained closed: a 300-year-old tradition where villagers neither went out nor allowed anyone to come.

In the village of Khark Jatan, in the Rohtak area of India, a unique tradition of social distancing has been observed for over 300 years. While the world adopted social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent the disease, this practice has been ongoing in this village long before that. On Saturdays during the month of Bhadrapada, villagers voluntarily shut down the entire village for 24 hours. From Friday night at 12 AM to Saturday night at 12 AM, neither a single villager left the village nor was any outsider allowed inside.