Hundreds of dishes created at temple for Diwali

A temple in North West London has made an attempt to break a world record for the largest number of food offerings.

On Diwali, known as the festival of lights and the start of the Hindu New Year, Swaminarayan Temple in Neasden had to make more than 1,500 food offerings to the deities.

Although the record remained unbroken it did not lessen the enthusiasm of devotees, thousands of whom visited the temple during its five-day celebrations.

Girish Patel, who organised the event, spoke about the mammoth effort.

The 1,200 different dishes all created for the festival of Diwali were cooked up by worshippers at the temple.