{"id":1647,"date":"2010-10-10T16:43:20","date_gmt":"2010-10-10T20:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=1647"},"modified":"2010-10-22T07:43:11","modified_gmt":"2010-10-22T11:43:11","slug":"open-house-new-york-2010-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=1647","title":{"rendered":"Open House New York 2010 – part two"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday – October 10<\/span><\/p>\n

Today is 10-10-10! \u00a0I just wanted to write it….. \u00a0It’s a unique date. :-)<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday was a long day, so it’s amazing that we still have any energy to visit more sites in the Open House New York listings today. \u00a0One major problem with OHNY is that there are so many really good sites to visit that I don’t have the strength to see as many as I would like to see. \u00a0Curiosity always wins with me!<\/span><\/p>\n

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Anyway, one site that I wanted to visit was the Hindu Temple Society of North America also called Ganapathi\/Muthiah Stapathi in Flushing, Queens. \u00a0The listing in the OHNY guide said that the Temple was built “with an elaborately carved shrine of black granite imported from India”. \u00a0Flushing also has some of our favorite Chinese restaurants, so with the temptation of a good Chinese lunch, we set out for Flushing.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Temple Society began in Queens in 1970 in an existing structure, but a new building was constructed in 1977. \u00a0It is the first Hindu Temple in North America which was constructed by artisans from India. \u00a0For more specific information, visit their website: www.nyganeshtemple.org. \u00a0Today the building is under re-construction and great expansion of the original building and well worth a visit. \u00a0I think it will be fun to return to the Temple during the year to watch the exterior take shape.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The entrance was ornate and decorated with raised friezes of important deities, flowers and elephants. \u00a0We took off our shoes and left them along the wall near the door with other pairs of shoes. \u00a0Unfortunately, photography was not allowed inside the Temple. We climbed the stairs and entered the large marble room. \u00a0Shrines devoted to many different deities lined the walls. \u00a0People were walking around the room praying in turn to each of the gods. \u00a0It was a lively scene of \u00a0people made more colorful by the women in bright and beautiful flowing saris. \u00a0There were two large granite shrines near the middle of the floor where people sat on the floor to pray.<\/span><\/p>\n

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At one of the shrines, people were gathering for a service. \u00a0A man played the flute and the monk conducting the service began to chant while decorating a statue of Ganesh with flowers. \u00a0This was the third day of a six-day festival and more people gathered for the ceremony. \u00a0I wished someone would explain the rituals and practices to me so that I could have a deeper understanding of the Hindu practices.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Temple houses a renowned “canteen” where Indian food is served to parishioners and the public alike. \u00a0This is a self-serve cafeteria-style eatery located in the basement of the Temple. \u00a0Descending the stairs, the canteen reminded me of church-social luncheon halls, picnic tables and all.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The tables were full of extended families eating their lunch. \u00a0We joined the long line at the far end of the room and tried to make sense of the large hand-printed vegetarian menu. \u00a0I have always enjoyed eating Indian food and guessed that, since we were among the few Westerners in the room, the food must be good. \u00a0 There was a wide variety of breads, samosas, dosas and lentil dishes with colorful tasty dipping sauces. \u00a0We ordered a couple of dishes to share and had a very good lunch of fresh and delicious healthy Indian food. \u00a0Yum…..<\/span><\/p>\n

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It was late Sunday afternoon in Flushing, Queens and the traffic was beginning to increase. \u00a0We joined the millions of automobiles driving around New York City on a warm early October afternoon and crossed the bridge under construction and finally arrived home. \u00a0It was a full weekend of architecture and design. \u00a0I can’t wait until next year’s Open House New York! <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday – October 10 Today is 10-10-10! \u00a0I just wanted to write it….. \u00a0It’s a unique date. :-) Yesterday was a long day, so it’s amazing that we still have any energy to visit more sites in the Open House New York listings today. \u00a0One major problem with OHNY is that there are so many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-york-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1647"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1771,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions\/1771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}