Hindu Religious Ministry to celebrate Deepavali
[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2003, 16:09 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Hindu Religious Affairs Ministry has released 1.5 million rupees to Administrators of thirty five institutions such as orphanages, homes of the aged, children homes and women welfare centres in the northeast to purchase and supply new clothes to celebrate Deepavali (Festival of Lights) which falls on October 24th Friday, said a ministry media unit press release Saturday.
Meanwhile the Hindu Religious Affairs Minister Mr. T.Maheswaran decided to hold Deepavali Day celebration in the capital Colombo under the State patronage. Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe is to participate as the chief guest at the Deepavali celebrations scheduled to be held on October 23 Thursday at Bambalapitiya New Kathiresan Hall in Colombo. A special postage stamp depicting the importance of Deepavali Festival is to be released on October 23 by the Media Minister Mr.Imtiaz Bakir Markar. Deepavali will also be celebrated on Friday 24 at Nallur Kandasamy Temple premises and Thurga Mani Mandapam, according to Temple trustees. Hindu Religious Affairs Ministry earlier decided to hold the celebration at Galle Face Green in Colombo on a grand scale. The Hindu Religious Affairs Department Director Ms Shanthi Naavukarasan said Saturday that the celebration has been shifted to Bambalapitya New Kathiresan Hall from Galle Face Green due to unavoidable circumstances. Hindu Religious Affairs Ministry earlier made an appeal to all Hindu temples and institutions in the island that they should distribute new clothes to minimum ten persons by each institution who are placed beyond poverty line. Accordingly more than one hundred Hindu religious institutions have come forward to distribute new clothes to widows, orphans and aged persons sought refuge in their institutions and to hold "annathanam (Free meal)" on Deepavali Day, sources said.
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