worldtamilhinduforum.blogspot.com
TAMIL NADU, INDIA, April 21, 2009: [HPI note: this is an article on the importance of feeding devotees during Hindu festivals] In every ethnic and religious community across the Indian subcontinent, no festival or ceremony is complete without annadanam (offering of food), or at least with the distribution of prasadam, the edible items offered during puja. Annadanams are based on the principle that the guest should be treated as God, for among the hungry crowd there is the anonymous sincere devotee, a saint or even a deva or deity. Indeed, each and every poor person is regarded in this way.
Just as as the Indian subcontinent extends from Mount Kailasa in the far North to Kataragama in the far South, so also the principle of annadanam is respected and practiced across the subcontinent. A popular saying among Kailasa pilgrims exhorts listeners to “offer food to the hungry and water to the thirsty in the name of Lord Siva.”