rawstory.com SINGAPORE, October 2, 2006: On an annual basis in Singapore over 3,000 male devotees participate in a fire-walking procession near the Sri Mariamman Temple. Traditionally the ritual takes place before Deepavali which falls on October 21 this year. The ceremony requires the participants to walk barefoot down a 15-foot-long bed of hot coals to show their devotion to Sri…
www.hinduamericanfoundation.org TAMPA, FLORIDA, October 16, 2006: The Hindu American Foundation is making the public recognition of the Diwali festival a major focus of their work this year. HAF has worked with U.S. Congressmen to author House Resolution 548, a Bill recognizing Diwali. As a result of HAF’s Third Annual Government Outreach and Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., the Foundation educated…
www.ndtv.com MUMBAI, INDIA, October 12, 2006: The Bombay High Court has ordered that the wall around Siddhivinayak temple to prevent terrorist attacks must go. The court order came in response to a lawsuit filed by local residents who said the wall was encroaching on a public road. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent by temple authorities on constructing a…
www.rediff.com THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, INDIA, October 12, 2006: The annual Ponkala festival of the Attukal Bhagavathi temple in Thiruvananthapuram, one of the world’s biggest devotional congregations of women, is set to make it to the Guinness book of World Records. The festival, which draws over a million women in a single day in March, will go into the record books as an…
www.hindu.com KERALA, INDIA, October 3, 2006: Vijayadasami, a festival highlighting a child’s initiation into some kind of academic or artistic endeavor, was celebrated throughout the state of Kerala at the beginning of October. The Minister for Education participated in a special ceremony organized by the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare where five needy children who were either abandoned or…
www.ibnlive.com NEW DELHI, INDIA, October 13, 2006: The famed Indian appetite for gold is being manifest with renewed vigor this season as a surge in festival demand and a recent fall in prices has fueled a virtual gold rush in the market. The current upward trend has particularly been underlined by the country’s top bullion trader MMTC Ltd’s business outlook…
www.rediff.com MUMBAI, INDIA, October 13, 2006: Tired of waiting for months to get an appointment for an interview to secure a US visa? Here’s some good news for you. The prolonged wait for a visa may soon be a thing of the past with US authorities looking to streamline the process for applying for non-immigrant visas to America. Their goal:…
www.london.gov.uk LONDON, ENGLAND, October 12, 2006: Diwali on the Square, organized by the Mayor of London and the Divali in London Committee, is a free event at Trafalgar Square on Sunday, October 15, 2006, and everyone is welcome. The annual celebration of Diwali will start at 4:00pm with messages and prayers for peace to be followed by a variety of…
www.malaysiakini.com KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, October 12, 2006: A top finance industry official has drawn fire after reportedly forbidding Muslims from delivering Hindu festive greetings to ethnic Indians. Fauzi Mustaffar, head of the Islamic law department at insurance company Takaful Malaysia, issued the warning to the staff ahead of this month’s Deepavali festival, the Star Daily reported. He said that because…
www.ndtv.com NEW DELHI, INDIA, October 12, 2006: The Central government’s ban on employing children below the age of 14 in homes, hotels and restaurants goes into effect on Tuesday. Children’s rights activists say there are between 10 and 15 million children across the country who work, which will make the enforcement of this ban very difficult. What’s even worse is…