Vietnamese celebrate New Year at Hindu temple

Magh Shukla 4, Kaliyug Varsha 5113

Beiging (China) A flood of Vietnamese are flooding a Hindu temple in Ho Chi Minh City during the 7-day Tet festival that began last Friday, according to Indian residents of the city and local Vietnamese.

More than 50,000 people, almost all Buddhists, prayed at the Mariammam Temple through the day and the entire night during the Vietnamese New Year on Sunday. The flow continued through Tuesday with several thousand local people visiting each day.

"The local Vietnamese believe that worshiping at this temple during the New Year festival will bring good luck," Atul Kumar, a businessmen who has been in HCMC since the 1980s told TNN.

A visitor from India reported that people were observing both Hindu and Buddhist rituals to please the gods at the temple.

"There was a scramble of people offering ‘prasad’ as the main door of the sanctum sanctorum opened last midnight. There were several thousand Vietnamese Buddhists. They were all praying with deep belief," B.S.Subramanyam, a chemical engineer from Chennai told TNN over phone.

Local Vietnamese are making oaths and offering ‘prasad’ in the belief that Hindu gods are generous about granting the wishes of worshippers. Food offerings are being made to idols of several gods and goddesses including Lakshmi, Muruga and Ganesha besides the main idol of goddess Mariammam.

This is among the three Hindu temples in Vietnam’s biggest city, which has less than 1,000 resident Indians. The Mariammam temple draws the maximum number of local worshippers besides serving as an officially approved tourist’s destination.

All the temples were built nearly 150 years back, when the city had a thriving community of Indian businessmen dealing in silk and spices.

 Vietnamese worshippers applied red vermilion on their foreheads after making offerings of flowers, coconuts, betel leaf, dried rice and candles to the different gods at the Mariammam temple.

Many visitors burning three to five feet long incense sticks filling the temple premises with thick smoke, which is how worshiping takes place in Vietnamese Buddhist temples.

All the temples were built nearly 150 years back, when the city had a thriving community of Indian businessmen dealing in silk and spices.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com