Author:
Publication: TamilNet
Date: August 9, 2009
URL: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=29966
Several hundred saiva devotees from different
parts of the U.S. Saturday attended the Washington Murugan Temple chariot
festival held annually to coincide with the festival at the Nalloor Kandaswamy
Temple in Jaffna. A new chariot funded by Sri Lanka's Tamil expatriates in
New York, built in Colombo by Jaffna craftsmen, shipped to the U.S., and assembled
locally, made the maiden-run Friday in preparation for the Saturday ceremony.
Cognizant of the hardships suffered by relatives and friends inside internment
camps, devotees kept the festivities outside the temple at a low-profile,
attending devotees said.
The annual festival in Nalloor, Jaffna, which
begins on the sixth day after the July's New Moon, and is already in progress.
The Nalloor festival which turns Jaffna into a virtual spiritual town has
suffered under the occupation of Sri Lanka military of Jaffna district, and
the continued imposition of curfew which prevents devotees from other parts
of Jaffna to attend the festival.
Mr Jeyakanthan, the lead wood sculpter who
crafted the new chariot in the workshop in Colombo, attended the ceremony
to inaugurate the chariot.
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami from the Hawaii
Hindu Monastry presided the event. The Hawaii monastry was built by Subramaniyaswami,
a disciple of Saint Yogaswami of Jaffna.
Devotees also were collecting contributions
to fabricate traditional carved doors with brass bells to replace the door
in Sannathi Temple in Thondamanaaru, Jaffna.
