CELEBRATIONS for a major festival in the Hindu calendar begin tomorrow in Southampton with a 24-hour recital of a holy scripture.

The Vedic Hindu Society Temple will be celebrating Ram Navmi, with the Radcliffe Road temple’s priest Ritesh Bhatt leading devotees through the incantations of a sacred text from 8am.

Worshippers at the temple will be joining in with hundreds of millions of people across the world in the event.

The festival is a focal point for moral reflection and being especially charitable to others and is celebrated across the Indian sub-continent.

Devotees read from the Tulsi-krut Ramayan, also known as the Ram-charit-manas, a scripture more than 500 years old, translated from Sanskrit to a Hindi dialect.

Dancer Dalia Pathak will perform the routine which originates from the Indian state of Orissa ahead of the banquet at about 11.45am on Saturday.

An image of baby Ram is placed in a covered cradle with the covering removed at midday and food is offered to the god, an incarnation of Vishnu, before it is shared among the congregation.

Mr Bhatt said: “People can learn from Lord Ram. The individual can learn respect for their parents, be the ideal person and love only their partner, and be the ideal ruler in bravery.

“That is the reason to chant the whole scripture. It is a big epic poem that teaches people how to lead their lives.”

On Saturday evening members of the Vedic Society temple will be voting for their new committee from 6.30pm.

Two cheques for cash raised by temple devotees to two charities – Medecins Sans Frontieres on behalf of the Philippines Typhoon Appeal and the Prime Minister of India’s Relief Fund for displaced people – will also be presented.