IN PHOTOS: New Malden celebrates Tamil heritage
NEW Malden was awash with bright colours, joyous dancing and sound yesterday as members of the Tamil community and the public celebrated the Tamil harvest festival Thai Pongal.
The event, usually celebrated on 14 January but moved to 22 apparently for covid reasons, was held in St George's Square for the first time as part of the new London-wide Tamil Heritage month.
The celebrations started with a procession through New Malden high street of dancers, drummers and musicians.
It finished in the Square which was garlanded with colourful decorations including a flower archway.
Crowds gathered to watch performances of Tamil martial arts and the folk dances Mayilattam (the peacock dance), Karagattam and Kolattam.
There were breaks for speeches by Kingston MP Sir Ed Davey, Council leader Andreas Kirsch, Kingston Mayor Sushila Abraham and Cllr Thay Thayalan, who is from Sri Lanka and was on the organising committee of the event.
At least four thousands Tamils are believed to live in Kingston borough and Cllr Abraham thanked the community for their contributions during the pandemic.
Mr Davey joked that all Kingston needed some of the Jaffna weather, referring to the 2016 twinning of the borough with the Sri Lankan town - an event which was marked before the festivities with the unveiling of a new sign near the border with Merton.
Sir Ed added that he had tabled a motion in Parliament calling for the UK government to formally establish January as Tamil heritage month.
As the festivities continued, free pots of the Thai Pongal dish of rice boiled with milk and sugar were given out to the crowds along with the savoury doughnut Medhu Vada.
The event was positively received by attendees and it is hoped that the celebrations will become an annual part of the Kingston calendar.
The owner of Tolworth Sri Lankan restaurant Laxmi told Nub News: "As a sponsor of the event and someone originally from Jaffna I was very happy from this event and the unveiling of the sign. I also believe my culture was also honoured in the process."
Saritha, who teaches Tamil folk dances with her company Vision2Dance in New Malden, said: "Vision2Dance was privileged to take part in this wonderful event and teach the tamil folk dance called Kolattam to attendees.
"Kolattam, also named as "stick dance" is where the dancers use sticks to create a rhythm.
It was a spontaneous and fun session enjoyed by all participants." Cllr Thayalan said on Twitter the event was "very successful." "Proud to be part of the organising committee co-ordinating the event with the Tamil community organisations and Kingston council," he wrote. The festivities later moved to the New Malden methodist church with Sarah Olney MP among the attendees. However, it later emerged that paint had been dropped on the procession as it made its way through the high street. In a statement on Twitter Kingston Police said a man had been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage following the incident. The force are now appealing for victims + witnesses who are yet to come forward. Please call 101 ref CAD 2868/22JAN22.
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