SOUTH AFRICA, April 23, 2011 (The Times Live): Thousands of Hindu devotees will visit temples this weekend in accordance with a practice started by indentured Indian sugar-cane labourers about 100 years ago. The Isipingo Mariamman Temple and the Shri Mariammen Temple in Mount Edgecombe will be bustling as devotees from across the country pay homage during the Easter week to the goddess Mariamman.
The Mariamman Temple in Isipingo Rail was said to have been built in about 1860, over the home of a sacred cobra. Deities represented include Mariamman, Ganesha, Kali and Krishna.
The 121-year-old Shri Mariammen Temple in Mount Edgecombe was built by sugar-cane workers. Temple chairman Seelan Achary said the annual gathering had religious and historical significance. He said the sugar-cane workers toiled from dawn till dusk seven days a week in the mills and cane fields. After protesting they were given Sunday off.
“During the Christian holidays of Good Friday and Easter Monday, the white sugar barons took the weekend off and, accordingly, offered the same to their workers. As this was the only time off they got, they used the opportunity to pay homage to Mother Mariamman, and so the practice and custom of praying to Mother Mariamman continued from one generation to the other,” he said.