Our First Divali

Up front I must confess that I’d never heard of Divali (or Diwali or Duvali or Duwali – why do words from Hindi have so many spellings in English??) before I heard it was a holiday coming up in Trinidad.  Not being Hindu and not having spent much time in areas with lots of Hindus we tend to be woefully ignorant of the religion, and I find the large array of gods with unusual names and inappropriate numbers of limbs to be rather confusing.   But of course there is a huge cultural heritage as with any of the major religions, with their own creation myths, heroes, villains, and holidays.

Trinidad is about 15% Hindu.  We were surprised when we learned this, but we had also just learned that a large portion of Trinidad’s population was of Indian descent which we had no idea of until we arrived here.  When you learn a few things all of a sudden the prayer flags in yards and all the curry make sense.   Trinidad has made very good accommodation with its mixed groups of Christians, Muslims and Hindus.  While the Christmas season seems to start in early October (or maybe earlier, it had started when we got here!), other holidays such as Divali get national holiday treatment as well, though this year the final night was on a Saturday so not everyone got a day off of work!

Divali is the Hindu festival of lights.  There is a full back story – it involves gods and demons and a few battles and dramatic escapes.   All of the unfamiliar names and places baffle me, so I will send you to Wikipedia or you may of course rely on your own Google-fu.  The end of it is the celebration of lights which is held by all three of the major sects of Hinduism although for somewhat different reasons in each sect.  I told you it was confusing.

We decided see the celebration with a tour arranged by Jesse James through his Member Only Maxi Taxi Service.  Jesse arranges some great tours for cruisers at very reasonable prices; we’d spent a couple of days with Jesse and knew he did things up right.  For Divali we were traveling to a town called Felicity near where Jesse grew up.  While the nearby larger town of Chaguanas had a larger Divali display, the town of Felicity is predominantly Hindu and are known for doing it up for the holiday.  Since this was people’s genuine holiday expression rather than a larger more organized production it felt like a better way to see it though we did have a small show of our own.

These guys could make a STUNNING amount of noise with those drums.

We started out at a Hindu temple on the main road in town.  Jesse had gotten together with the temple to  show us some of the authentic dancing, singing and costumes for the holiday.  We also were shown the temple shrine, where various statues of the Hindu pantheon were decorated for the holiday and on display.  The temple had numerous statues of different sizes out, festooned with flowers, garlands, lights and what appeared to be offering dishes.

One of the the temple leaders gave us an overview of the holiday and the legends behind it; unfortunately between his strong accent and the array of confusing place, person and divinity names I became completely confused.  So I sat back and enjoyed the music and the dancing.

After the presentation at the temple we were turned loose to check out the town.  We were having a group dinner of traditional Indian/Trini foods back at the temple but the serving area was too small for our group so we were going in shifts.  We connected with some of our boat friends and took a stroll.

The clay lights are the Diyas. You see a lot of those.

Almost every house and business had lights.  Two primary types of lighting were mostly in evidence – electric lights not unlike what we’d think of as “Christmas” lights except without limitation to Christmas colors.  And small clay lanterns called Diya (or “Deeya”…must be another Hindi word).  These little pots numbered in the thousands, with hundreds lit in some yards and thousands in rows upon rows lining streets and sidewalks.

Lighting more Diya

We were told all of the Diya are made in Trinidad, and they are mostly hand made.  Each one is filled with oil – usually coconut oil – and a wick and lit.  Keeping all of your Diya lit seems to be a large part of how some people spent their evening.  As evening wears on though the Diya and the energy to keep them lit starts to peter out so earlier in the evening is the best time for the lights.  There were also additional displays of

The main street lights behind Kathy

shrines with lights in many yards.

Each side street off the main road was also lit and the yards decorated often with more lights, enthusiasm, and pride than the main road.  Colorful patterns were painted on the road, and many people chose to walk around in cultural garb that was sometimes quite stunning.  I am still kicking myself for not stopping a few of the more stunning young women and asking for photos because my meager prose can not convey what they’d accomplished with silk, sequins, scarves and makeup.

A large part of Divali is also the food.  In the middle of walking around we stopped back by the temple for dinner.  Served in traditional Trini fashion on banana leaves instead of plates the various curry dishes offered us were delightful.  Surprisingly, or not so really given the prevalence of vegetarianism tied with Hinduism, the meal was meatless.  But if I could eat like that every night I might be persuaded to give up meat for quite a time.  On the other hand Divali is an alcohol free holiday – but it is good clean family fun without the stumbling drunks you see on some holidays.

A family in traditional dress on a brightly lit side street

The other aspect of the food is the street food.  As the peak night of Divali approaches many people who are planning light displays are also busy making up packages of foods.  Mixes of pieces of cakes and dessert treats with fruit and other delights are made up and handed out to passing strangers.  Our dinner at the temple included no dessert, and we quickly figured out why.  The women and children seemed to fare the best in terms of being stopped and given treats but fortunately they were willing to share and we men were not neglected.

Another side street.

It was a lovely night, and very interesting to be welcomed at the participation of a holiday that was heretofore completely unknown to me.  But next year, if I am near some place with a Divali celebration I think we’re going to go and see the lights again.

Street designs painted for Divali, I believe called a Rangoli

Details from a Rangoli, they can be done in sand designs.