Source: www.demotix.com
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, August 8, 2010: Thousands attended the annual Chariot Festival from the Tamil Hindu Temple in West Ealing this morning, a colorful event in the streets around the temple. The celebration comes close to the end of their Mahotsavam festival which lasts for around four weeks. Around ten thousand people were expected to attend for the festival procession.
A representation of the temple’s main Goddess (Amman is Tamil for Mother) was placed on a chariot with temple priests and paraded around the streets by men and women pulling on large ropes. Behind the chariot come around 50 men, each holding a coconut. They roll their bodies along the street for the half mile or so of the route; behind them are a group of women who prostrate themselves to the ground every few steps.
The proceeds from the sale in the temple of the “archanas” — ritual blessings — on the festival day go to various educational projects for children that the temple sponsors in northern Sri Lanka.