Thousands of devotees participated at this year’s Nallur festival in Jaffna which ended yesterday and for the first time in more than 25 years it was held in a conflict-free environment, but the crowds were very much less than when the cease-fire was on.
The crowds would have been much more than in the last few years but not as much as when the A9 road was completely open and devotees thronged the festival during the 2002-03 period when the last peace talks between the Government and the LTTE were held.
“The biggest deterrent was the restrictions on the use of the A9 road, with just a few buses being allowed through the barrier. If the road was freely open there would have been thousands more attending,” said one resident, who recalled that on one occasion at that time, some buses were filled only with Tamil expatriates coming to attend the festival.The festival is a much looked forward to religious and social event in the Hindu calendar and draws not only devotees from all over the country but also from overseas.
Yesterday a sizable crowd attended the festival but the highpoint of the event was on Wednesday when the chariot festival drew some 50,000 devotees.According to some estimates, the crowd at the beginning of the 25-day festival this year drew an average of 5,000 people a day rising to around 30,000 a day during the last and most important stages of the event.
Apart from the religious significance, the festival was also a social event, held during the August summer vacation when expatriate children come home during the vacation, with their families using the occasion for match-making. Residents said the crowds this year would have been about 50 percent or less compared to the cease-fire period. “There was hardly any accommodation free at that time.
Any resident who had a room with attached bath turned it into a guest room,” one shopkeeper in Jaffna said. |
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