City Mayors to Inaugurate Hindu Festival

May 27, 2009

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Salt Lake Tribune

http://www.sltrib.com/southvalley/ci_12463599

Mayors Ralph Becker, Kent Money and JoAnn Sehgeni will inaugurate the "Chariot Festival" or "Rathothsava" and Annual Day Celebrations of Sri Ganesha Hindu Temple (SGHT) and India Cultural Center on May 30 at the temple premises in South Jordan.

The event is free and open to the public between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The Rathothsava is a pageant when Hindus pull a colorfully decorated wooden chariot carrying the temple deities, around the perimeter of the campus. Community members will perform various folk dances from different regions of India in celebration.

The Temple Annual Day commemorates the May 2003 consecration of the Hindu Temple. Since then the community has grown slowly and is now prepared to build a million dollar cultural center within its campus that can be a multi-use arts facility.