As the UK, and once-Empire gets its first Prime Minister of Indian descent, the World’s Largest Diaspora and third largest religious denomination celebrate the Festival of Lights. The festival marks a month of related observances and celebrations. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is the front runner to replaces Liz Truss. But as her short-lived 45-day stint at 10 Downing Street proved, a day in the life of politics can be a term… (more on this later).
Largest Celebrations of the Diaspora
The celebrations of this period in the Caribbean is one of the largest outside of India, encompassing Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica, Belize, Cayman Islands, St Lucia, Puerto Rico, Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Turks and Caicos, British Virgin Islands, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda.
Indentured immigrants also moved to Canada and North America. They precede larger more recent migration of voluntary workers in the Diaspora
Public Holiday
The Mayor of New York declared Divali a holiday this year. Divali is also a public holiday in Bali, Mauritius, Fiji, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago.
These descendants of the first wave of more than one million migrants through forced indentured labour in the mid 19th century, whose populations now also include free migrants in the free movements of modern globalisation. They brought with them cultural traditions, heritage, faiths, beliefs and practices that have blended with and contributed to the melting pot of MultiCulturalism of the Caribbean.
UNESCO Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage
The period encompasses Navratri — the nine days of celebration of each form of Goddess Durga — culminates with Dussehra, the tenth day. The festival and worship of Durga was inscribed last year on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List of Humanity joining other significant celebrations of this and related festivities on the UNESCO Lists that include Ramleela, the Kumbh Mela, Yoga, Sanskrit Theatre, dance traditions as the Chhau that reenact the Ramayan, Himalayan Ramman traditions that recognise the incarnation of Narsimma half man-half lion incarnation, Baul song and poetry of Bangladesh, Ritual Practices of the Boysun District, Uzbekistan; Yeongsanjae of Korean Buddhist among others.
Fun Facts About Divali The Festival of Lights
The Goddess Mother Lakshmi is worshipped at Divali.
Divali also celebrates the return of the King of Ayodhya, Rama, his brother Lakshmana an wife Sita from exile in the forests after 14 years following his defeated the evil king Ravana.
In Trinidad and Tobago Divali is celebrated as a national festival since Hindus came to the island as indentured labourers in 1845 among more than one million Indian migrant to the Caribbean.
Divali has been a national holiday in Trinidad and Tobago since 1966
Hindus comprise the second largest faith-group in Trinidad and Tobago.
The Indo Diaspora
Enjoy this video of some of the oral and literary knowledge, rituals and festival heritage traditions of this diaspora and research in contribution and participation in the multicultural melting pot of traditions from Trinidad and Tobago. The three works featured are Finding a Place, LiTTscapes and MultipleChoice in a MultiCultural Place – The Learning Revolution!
May the Light of Knowledge remove the Darkness of Ignorance Shubh Divali!
About Dr Kris Rampersad
Dr Kris Rampersad is evolving blended media education and cultural tools, techniques. She is a UNESCO-trained educator/facilitator, National Geographic certified educator, global Woman Techmakers’ Ambassador and Google Digital Skills Ambassador. For custommade heritage advice, courses, curriculum development, museum installations and displays and to support, collaborate, sponsor or adopt a community, develop our multimedia museum, galleries, publications and films and digitisation of our knowledge repository find out more in this link.