Over 15,000 people attend London’s Sri Murugan Temple Float Festival

A number of dignitaries, including Sir Stephen Timms, the East Ham parliament minister, and Thavathuray Jeyaranjan, the mayor of Redbridge, attended the event.

By: Eastern Eye Staff

London’s Sri Murugan Temple annual ‘Ther’ float festival was held with fanfare on Sunday (24) at East Ham in the British capital. The event saw over 15,000 people turn out on Eastham Street and the colorful celebrations were a spectacular feast for the eyes.

Lord Murugan’s chariot, which came out on the way during the day, was stopped halfway for devotees to offer their special puja.

This year a number of dignitaries took part in the festival and among them were – Sir Stephen Timms, the East Ham Parliamentary Minister; Thavathuray Jeyaranjan, the Mayor of Redbridge and his fellow councillors; 12 councilors from Newham, among others.

The Sri Murugan Temple Executive Committee ensured that arrangements were in place for the festival.

S Sampathkumar and P Dakshinamoorthy, chairman and secretary of the committee respectively, thanked the Metropolitan Police and the London Ambulance Service for deploying over 25 police officers and four ambulance vehicles with staff for the event.

Sri Murugan Temple, which held its first float festival in 1984, has come a long way since then. The festival takes place every year during the Tamil month of Adi, at the onset of the monsoon. The seed of the temple was sown in 1975 by a group of people who realized the religious and cultural needs of the South Indian and Tamil community and they formed a congregation which acquired the site in Church Road, East Ham, in 1983 .

The temple, which has a South Indian architectural style, is the largest South Indian temple in Europe and the second largest Hindu religious place in the world built of black granite stone. The main deity in the temple is Lord Murugan and it is one of the main attractions for the South Indian people in the UK.