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Totally Thames hosts first Ganga Aarti
The Hindu··14 Sept
Thousands gathered on the River Thames banks in London on September 13, 2026, for the first Ganga Aarti there. Chinmaya Mission UK organised the ceremony with Totally Thames, marking 75 years of the charity. Multi-tiered oil lamps, prayer, music and chanting filled the Greenwich riverside rite. Organisers kept it entirely on land, with nothing placed or poured into the Thames.
Prism
What It Means For You
- British Hindu and South Asian communities gained a public Thames-side rite open to other backgrounds too.
- Festival-goers at Totally Thames saw a land-only ceremony designed to leave the river undisturbed.
- Chinmaya Mission framed the gathering as gratitude for nature rather than offerings into the water.
What's Happening
- Chinmaya Mission UK staged Ganga Aarti on the Thames: A Ceremony of Light on Sunday.
- Brahmacharini Shripriya Chaitanya, resident teacher, linked the rite to gratitude for rivers and nature.
- The backdrop was the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, with Hindu organisations from across the UK present.
How the Thames Ceremony Was Framed
- Chinmaya Mission was founded in 1951 by Swami Chinmayananda and marks 75 years this cycle.
- Totally Thames, run since 1997, centres arts, heritage and environment events on the river.
- Organisers said the London aarti recreates the ethos of Ganga aarti held by the River Ganges in India.
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