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On the full-moon day of August each year, the sacred tooth relic of the Buddha, encased in a golden casket, is taken in procession on the back of the temple elephant. The magnificent procession is in all probability the most spectacular torch lit parade in all of Asia. The sacred ritual has been followed for centuries, recorded with meticulous care since the sacred relic was moved to the Kandy Dalada Maligawa – the Temple Palace of the Tooth Relic. The old cannon booms after dusk and the Procession descends on to the streets every night, with the parades growing longer each night until the final night of pageantry, when the parade is at its pinnacled finest.More than a hundred elephants dressed in their fabulous finery, Kandyan chiefs in their traditional royal regalia, thousands of dancers, drummers, flag bearers, fire-juggling acrobats, musicians, whip crackers, torch bearers and thousands of barefoot pilgrims walk in measured steps in the torch lit procession. People in their thousands line the streets of Kandy every night during the festival to glimpse the golden casket and to pay homage to the Buddha with thousands of vocal chords releasing the cry Sadhu! Sadhu!