Thousands gather in Novi to celebrate Festival of Chariots

NOVI — Thousands gathered in Novi July 23 to celebrate the 38th annual Festival of Chariots, a Hindu cultural festival put on by the Iskcon Temple in Detroit.

The festival, which is said to promote love and happiness, honors the Hindu god Krishna. During the festival, Krishna comes out from the temple in the form of Jagannath along with his brother, Balarama, and sister, Subhadra. The gods are paraded through the city via a 40-foot-tall chariot that is hand-pulled by members of the community in a 2-mile procession that begins at the Novi Civic Center and ends at Fuerst Park.

“We may have all this wealth, this power, this strength, this fame, beauty, intelligence, but in the absence of love, all is shallow and empty; thus, the theme of this year’s festival is ‘all we need is love,’” said Namish Patel, of the Iskcon Temple in Detroit.

Prior to the parade, participants worshiped Krishna through song and dance. Many officials were in attendance, including Mayor Bob Gatt, Mayor Pro Tem Dave Staudt, City Manager Victor Cardenas, Councilmen Justin Fischer and Brian Smith, state Rep. Kelly Breen and County Commissioner Ajay Raman.

“As the mayor, it has been my wish, it has been my desire that the city of Novi sends love to everybody — to all of our 65,000 people that live here and the millions of people that come to visit Novi,” Gatt told festivalgoers.

Once the parade arrived at the park, the festival offered a vast array of vendors selling Indian clothing, food and other cultural items; cultural dancing shows; henna tattoos; children’s activities; yoga; cooking classes; and the option of worshiping. There was also a free meal that was available to all.

“While it may not be raining showers from the sky, we can rest assured that it is raining blessings of love from the Lord who is bestowing blessings of love on all of us to enjoy this festival and find what it means to be really happy,” Patel said.

Within a few hours, the skies did burst open with rain and thunder, causing those in attendance to disperse into nearby tents.

Madhu Mahadevan, of the temple, said the crowd came in two waves. The first wave started at the beginning of the event and left when the rain came at around 2 p.m. The second wave came after the storm passed and continued to remain steady. This allowed for the festival to remain open until 6 p.m., when it had been scheduled to close at 5 p.m.

“The mood was definitely a lot of joy and happiness, even with the rain,” he said.

Mahadevan said he asked many festivalgoers what brought them to the festival. He said the answer was predominantly curiosity.

“They see this big, 40-foot-tall chariot, and they want to see what it is all about,” Mahadevan said. “They were kind of intrigued by the clothes people were wearing, the henna tattoos, this type of stuff. I think Indian culture probably grabs, I’d say, half of them, and then probably splits between fun activity for kids and then free food.”

Mahadevan estimated that the festival was attended by more than 12,000 people. He said that organizers gave out more than 7,000 plates of food this year. He attributed the attendance to the mostly good weather.