Fact Check: Does this video show Diwali celebrations in US?
A video reportedly showing recent Diwali celebrations in the US is doing the rounds of social media.
By Satya Priya BN Published on 9 Nov 2021 1:00 PM GMT
Hyderabad: A video reportedly showing recent Diwali celebrations in the US is doing the rounds of social media. The video shows long strings of firecrackers being burst on the roads as thousands of onlookers enjoy the scene.
Several users captioned the video, "Diwali Celebrations in America".
Fact Check:
The claim that the video shows Diwali celebrations in the US is FALSE.
Newsmeter extracted keyframes from the video and performed a Google reverse image search. The video was posted on Facebook in April 2021 and it is from Baishatun Matsu pilgrimage in Taiwan and NOT America.
Taking a cue from this, we searched for videos of Baishatum Mazu celebrations in April 2021. A longer video showing festivities of the pilgrimage that took place in Taiwan in April 2021 was posted by the YouTube channel SETN.com, a Taiwan-based news channel. The video was captioned, "Firecrackers stretch for 500 meters to warmly welcome Baishatun Mazu".
According to a Taipei Times report from 12 April 2021, Baishatun Matsu pilgrimage, one of the largest annual religious processions in Taiwan, set off from Miaoli county's Baishatun. The procession of the sea goddess Matsu is organized by the Gong Tian Temple, it said. "About 78,000 people have signed up to participate in this year's procession, which is to travel 400km to Chao Tian Temple in Yunlin County's Beigang and back," it added.
The same video had gone viral in July 2021 with the claim that it shows Italians celebrating the Euro Cup win. It was debunked by several fact-checking organizations. Click here and here to read them.
Though several NRIs as well as native Americans celebrated Diwali in America and other countries as well, the claim that the video shows Diwali celebrations in the US is FALSE.
