A video of a glittering fleet of boats cruising in a serpentine motion supposedly on a river in Kerala has been doing the rounds on social media with the hashtag #Deepotsavam.
Bhawana Somaaya, the entertainment editor at an FM Radio channel, who translated a book by Prime Minister Narendra Modi titled ‘Letters to Self’, shared the video and pointed out how 240 boats could be seen sailing in the river with lamps to mark Diwali celebrations. She tweeted:
#Deepotsavam in Kerala. 240 boats sailing in the river with lamps.#Diwali celebrations continue… pic.twitter.com/rHKoT4LUGt
— Bhawana Somaaya (@bhawanasomaaya) November 7, 2022
The official Twitter handle of Malaimurasu TV also shared the video with a caption in Tamil that can be translated as: Diwali celebration continues in Kerala..! 240 boats ply the river with twinkling lights on the occasion of Deepothsavam.
கேரளாவில் தொடரும் தீபாவளி கொண்டாட்டம்..!
தீபோத்ஸவத்தையொட்டி மிளிரும் விளக்குகளுடன் ஆற்றில் பயணிக்கும் 240 படகுகள்#deepotsav2022 | #kerala | #boats | #Malaimurasu pic.twitter.com/zVWIBzD44H
— Malaimurasu TV (@MalaimurasuTv) November 8, 2022
Social media user Sanjay Fadnavis even identified the place as Miralam Mandi Mahakanaleshwar temple in Kerala on the river Karthik.
Nageswara’s procession of 240 handboats in the river Karthika near the Miralam Mandi Mahakanaleshwar temple in Kerala is a spectacular display. pic.twitter.com/OE4jPkvqB6
— SANJAY FADNAVIS (@sanjayfadnavis1) November 7, 2022
Facebook user Ruchi Sharma also shared the video claiming 240 boats in Kerala carried lamps on a river.
Fact-check
A reverse image search on Google led us to the YouTube channel Виталий Кузь which had posted the video with the title ‘Glowing bamboo dragon chasing the pearl over the Yulong river‘.
The twitter handle of China Daily, a state-affiliated media house, had tweeted the video on September 4, 2022, calling it a dragon dance on the river.
Dragon dance on the river! #TrendingNow pic.twitter.com/FQG8nSYeal
— China Daily (@ChinaDaily) September 4, 2022
Twitter user @InterestingPot also shared the video saying that there were 88 bamboo rafts on the Yulong river.
A keyword search on Facebook also led to two videos that attributed the event to China on the river Yulong. Facebook user Fubiz posted the video on September 9, 2022 and with the caption, ‘Beautiful Golden Dragon Lighting on Yulong River in China’.
We also found a tweet by PD China, a Chinese state-affiliated media house, from December 14, 2021. It said that the Baili Liujiang Sports Tourism Demonstration Base and the Yulong River Leisure Sports Tourism Resort in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region had been listed as national demonstration base for sports tourism according to the local Department of Culture and Tourism.
Thus we can say that video which has been shared as celebrations of Diwali in Kerala is actually the clip of an event which took place in China on the Yulong River. Besides, the floating object is not a boat as claimed, rather a series of bamboo rafts.
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