(Happy Divali, everyone!)
Trinidad really is a melting pot of cultures. All races and ethnicities coexist here, and we all celebrate each other's traditions. Today is the festival of Divali.
Divali is the Hindu Festival of Lights. It is to Hindus similar to what Christmas is to Christians, and families exchange presents just as is the tradition in much of Western world. The lights shining in the darkness signify the eternal triumph of good over evil.
(It's like the song This little light of mine - I'm gonna let it shine. But to a whole different level!)
Each of those shining lights is a deya - a clay vessel filled with oil in which a wick lies and is lit to shine out in the darkness.
The deyas are traditionally placed in beautiful patterns on bamboo that is split and bent into creative designs. This is a simple traditional design.
This is definitely a non-traditional design, and the bamboo is merely cut and nailed together - not the tradition at all. There are many beautiful designs in the traditional Hindu communities - animals and symbols - but sadly I wasn't able to catch any of those today.
Families come out in their numbers to mingle and spend time together keeping the little flames lit.
The flames look quite a bit bigger than they actually are, because I had to use my phone's camera. It really is more like twinkly lights than big scary flames.
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11 comments:
Happy Deepavali! as we call it here. Trinidad sounds more 'melted' than Singapore..happy festivities.
BM
Enjoy your celebration; it's very interesting :)
What a wonderful celebration! the pictures make it look like so much fun!
What a fabulous celebration! I just heard about this meme last night when I had dinner with a wonderful group of SITScation ladies. How fun!
What an amazing celebration! Lovely captures.
"Shub Divali everyone! (shoob di-wah-lee)" I learned something new from this entire post. What a great tradition and way to celebrate the holiday. Thanks for sharing your city.
xo
How beautiful your celebration is! Thank you so much for sharing this!
Divali here means the beginning of the fireworks frenzy from Divali to Halloween. Loved your pictures.
I found that to be quite inspirational. Thank you. I'm gonna let it shine.
Love the pictures. I will try to go to one the events next year - looks like a beautiful celebration
That was fascinating! I loved learning about the celebration. Thank you for sharing!
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