News

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND, Mach 28, 2024 (YouTube): The Saiva Tamil Sangam has just concluded a three-day (March 22-24) Bhumi puja to inaugurate the construction of a new Siva temple on the lot next to their existing warehouse temple in an industrial area (near the airport) in Zurich, Switzerland. Two very short videos of the Bhumi puja:https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pITTzsK_-IUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38dw11CiGTs&t=1sAnd a short Facebook video which…

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 28, 2024 (Gallup): As Americans observe Ramadan and prepare to celebrate Easter and Passover, the percentage of adults who report regularly attending religious services remains low. Three in 10 Americans say they attend religious services every week (21%) or almost every week (9%), while 11% report attending about once a month and 56% seldom (25%) or never…

WASHINGTON, March 22, 2024 (Reuters): Astronomers have identified two ancient streams of stars – named after the Hindu Deities Shakti and Shiva – that appear to be among the Milky Way’s earliest building blocks, offering new insight into how our galaxy came together long ago. These structures, found using observations from the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope, may be…

INDIA, March, 25, 2024 (The Guardian): Holi is the Hindu festival of colors and is celebrated to mark the start of spring in India, Nepal, other South Asian countries and across the diaspora. Celebrants rejoice by throwing colored powders at one another on the street. Festivities also involve special holiday foods, music and dancing. Holi is seen as a time…

SUVA, FIJI, March 26, 2024 (Fiji Times):Hindus in Fiji will today celebrate Holi to mark the triumph of good over evil. All Sanatan schools will be closed today and Ramayan mandalis around Fiji will spend the whole day taking part in celebrations. “In Fiji, where our strength lies in our diversity, Holi demonstrates the spirit of inclusivity and mutual respect,”…

SPAIN, March 18, 2024 (El Faro Ceuta, google translated from Spanish): The Hindu priest from Ceuta, Juan Carlos Ramchandani (Pandit Krishna Kripa Dasa), has participated in the “International Congress on the Legal Status of Religious Minorities without a Cooperation Agreement” in Spain organized by the Public University of Navarra (UPNA), the Pluralism and Coexistence Foundation and the Ministry of Science…

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, February 29, 2024 (India Currents): On February 24, theater company Rungmunch organized two shows of the “Geet Ramayana,” a Broadway-style rendition of the great Indian epic. Hundreds of Bay Area residents attended the shows, which were scheduled for 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose. The production was supported by the…

UNITED STATES, March 15, 2024 (RNS): If experts were predicting that 100,000 libraries across the United States were likely to close in the next few decades, people would probably sit up and take notice. Certainly, if 100,000 school buildings were going to be empty in small and large communities, someone would be talking about it. But the possible demise of…

NEPAL, March 15, 2024 (ORF, by Dr. Hari Bansch Jha): The latest census conducted in 2021 in Nepal shows that the average growth of the population in the country dropped perceptibly from 1.34 per cent in 2011 to 0.93 per cent in 2021. Factors such as the outmigration of the population, reduction in fertility rate, increase in literacy rate mainly…