Date: September 12 2010; 2010-09-12Material: Color photographsDimension:
300 ppi
Creator: James WronaIdentifier: aql:19543 wrona-01-0210 wrona-01-0210.tif
Description: Devotees make offerings of fruit and flowers at the procession called Ratha Yatra, or "Car Festival" with many hundreds of Hindu devotees through the streets of Flushing, Queens. The Ratha Yatra marks the climax of the annual nine day festival called Sri Ganesa Chaturthi, held to celebrate the elephant-headed Hindu deity, Ganesh, the primary god worshiped at this particular temple. At the center of the procession is a large shrine housing a sculpture of the elephant-headed Hindu god, Ganesh. Priests riding atop the 16-foot long silver carriage, called a ratha, bless the offerings and send them back into the crowd to be shared. The carriage is actually motorized due to its enormous weight, but devotees also pull it along the route with long ropes. Devotees believe that the energy created by their week of chanting, offerings and the festivities in the streets replenish the powers of the holy statue and ready it for another year of worship in the temple. At the end of this procession is a ceremony to transfer the energy gathered by the smaller statue on the ratha to the larger Ganesha statue inside the temple - a piece far too large to move.
Summary/Description : Devotees make offerings of fruit and flowers at the procession called Ratha Yatra, or "Car Festival" with many hundreds of Hindu devotees through the streets of Flushing, Queens. The Ratha Yatra marks the climax of the annual nine day festival called Sri Ganesa Chaturthi, held to celebrate the elephant-headed Hindu deity, Ganesh, the primary god worshiped at this particular temple. At the center of the procession is a large shrine housing a sculpture of the elephant-headed Hindu god, Ganesh. Priests riding atop the 16-foot long silver carriage, called a ratha, bless the offerings and send them back into the crowd to be shared. The carriage is actually motorized due to its enormous weight, but devotees also pull it along the route with long ropes. Devotees believe that the energy created by their week of chanting, offerings and the festivities in the streets replenish the powers of the holy statue and ready it for another year of worship in the temple. At the end of this procession is a ceremony to transfer the energy gathered by the smaller statue on the ratha to the larger Ganesha statue inside the temple - a piece far too large to move.
Subject : Hindu gods; Hindu temples; Hindu altars; Ratha Yatra (Hindu festival); Hindu Temple Society of North America, NY
Add new comment