Source: www.tamilnet.com
WASHINGTON D.C., USA, August 9, 2009: Several hundred Saiva devotees from different parts of the U.S. attended the Washington Murugan Temple chariot festival on Saturday, 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. Mr. Jeyakanthan, the lead wood sculptor who crafted the new chariot, attended the 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.
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, publisher of Hinduism Today, presided the event. His guru was Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, a disciple of Saint Yogaswami of Jaffna.