Hindu Temple St Johns opened on Mother’s Day weekend in 1995
By Swati Sharan
HAMILTON: It’s hard to believe 25 years have gone by since St. John’s Hindu Temple off of Torbay Road opened publicly on Mother’s Day weekend 1995. For the Hindu community in St.John’s, this was a great turning point as we exited the old temple in Mount Pearl and entered this one.
Hindu Temple St Johns changed how the local Hindus interacted with one another because this temple was closer to them at a five minutes drive. As this temple started, many more functions started taking place too and on a much bigger scale. We now celebrated Navratri in 3 different styles on all nine days vs only the weekend. Ganesh celebrations were now being done over a period of days with a concluding parade of cars treading to Middle Cove Beach for the statue immersion. We gradually saw the addition of different new years celebrations including Ugadi and Gudi Pawa and more.
At one point, we could celebrate Independence Day on time and not wait for 1-2 months to get a hall. Taking ones kids to dance classes and drama practices became less of a chore because of less commuting. People were able to actually have different wedding festivities in the temple because of the hall and set up for Hindu ceremonies. In fact, we are even able to conduct celebratory baraats in the temple parking lot with technical evolutions happening all the time. (For those not in the know, this lies in great contrast to the earlier church basement weddings of the 80s where people only focused on the core wedding rituals).
This temple has also become a great site for the North Indian and South Indian lunch fundraisers for which tickets sell like magic and is highly locally visible. It is also the samosa operations management site for the local Regatta event where samosas sell in the thousands.
Hindu Temple St Johns talks
On other fronts, we were also able to attract more guest speakers of varying kinds. In fact, we were even lucky enough to get the honorable Karan Singh and his wife Yashodhara to grace us with their presence over a weekend celebration which attracted people from all backgrounds including then mayor Andy Wells.
The Saturday talk was on the significance of the Bhagavad Gita while Sunday saw Karan Singh practice and join with us for our bhajan concert program. This was to mark the establishment of the 25th anniversary of a formal Hindu group presence with its start in the old temple in 1976.
Technologically speaking, we rock. The use of power point and mp4s in presentations from people of all sizes became frequent thanks to the big video screen and projector as did watching short educational videos including religious cartoons. There were even some bhajans sung looking at lyrics on the cellphone with internet connectivity to reflect our technical vogue.
Overall, it is safe to say that from the cradle to the hereafter, this temple has become a central hub for celebration and commemoration.
In terms of our founding weekend celebrations, I wish I could be there for what are the routine events this year. The multi-faith seminar is a pet favorite event. It’s such an eye opener to hear people of different faiths express their views about a selected topic and how one thing can have contrasting or similar implications across varying traditions. The different meals we get during the event are also of noteworthy anticipation.
Hindu Temple St Johns celebrations
And of course, there’s nothing like the Mother’s Day celebration for many a Hindu woman in St. John’s. Indeed, it is a celebration upon which these women feel an ordained right. It’s where the men and children do all the cooking, serving and pageant hosting and the women enjoy. (Though at points women do intervene in pageant hosting). Though Mother’s Day is a western tradition, it has made its way into our temple’s calendar because of both being part of our founding weekend and the Hindu tradition of honoring the feminine divine. On this day, every woman gets a rose and a break.
And indeed, what better way to celebrate 25 years than by honouring the life givers of our community! May the progressing years see many more wonderful occasions.
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