{"id":12402,"date":"2007-06-18T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-18T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2007\/06\/18\/hindu-temple-in-mumbai-bans-coconut-offerings\/"},"modified":"2007-06-18T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-06-18T12:00:00","slug":"hindu-temple-in-mumbai-bans-coconut-offerings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2007\/06\/18\/hindu-temple-in-mumbai-bans-coconut-offerings\/","title":{"rendered":"Hindu Temple in Mumbai Bans Coconut Offerings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"source\"><a HREF=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/06\/18\/AR2007061801785.html\">www.washingtonpost.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"summary\">MUMBAI, June 18, 2007:   One of India&#8217;s most famous Hindu temples barred worshippers Monday from giving traditional offerings of coconuts to Lord Ganesha out of fears that bombs could be hidden inside. &#8220;As of today we have asked people not to bring in coconuts,&#8221; said Subash Mayekar, a trustee at central Mumbai&#8217;s Siddhivinayak Temple. He said worshippers are also prohibited from bringing floral garlands, but added, &#8220;a few flowers in their hands are all right.&#8221; Security measures have been stepped up at many temples across India after a temple in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi was targeted in an attack last year. &#8220;Explosives could be placed inside coconuts and we have to be careful,&#8221; said Mayekar, adding that the process of searching all the worshippers&#8217; offerings was causing long delays.<\/p>\n<p>Worshippers slammed the decision by the temple. &#8220;It is sacrilegious not to offer coconuts. It goes against Hindu faith and custom,&#8221; said S. Ganesan, who has written a book on the temple. &#8220;They should instead update their security. If a terrorist wants to create trouble, he does not need a coconut.&#8221; Worshippers traditionally walk barefoot for many miles to Siddhivinayak Temple hoping their prayers to Lord Ganesha are answered. Thousands of people visit the temple daily.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>www.washingtonpost.com MUMBAI, June 18, 2007: One of India&#8217;s most famous Hindu temples barred worshippers Monday from giving traditional offerings of,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}