Festival of Lights - Felicity, Trinidad

Central America Caribbean » Trinidad & Tobago » Trinidad
October 31st 2011

Published: November 9th 2011

According to the great Hindu epic ‘Ramayana’, Denali is believed to be the time when Lord Rama defeated and killed the evil King Ravana and after passing a period of fourteen years in exile returned to his capital Ayodhya on a new moon day of the Kartik season with wife Sita and brother Lakshman. This homecoming of Lord Rama is celebrated with lights, fireworks, and merriment. The tradition ... Read Full Entry

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Bob & Janice Waller

s v Tsamaya

Like so many others we love to travel and we love to sail so cruising makes a lot of sense. Janice has retired from Cornell as a business manager and Bob has retired from South Seneca school district as the high school principal. It's time to sell the house, get rid of whatever doesn't fit on our 40 foot Caliber LRC named Tsamaya (this means Travel Well in Setswana) and set off to see the world. Our reasons for publishing this blog is twofold, first to keep in touch with our friends and family and secondly to share our experiences. If you would like to receive notification when we have added ... full info

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The western influence at school

Another west meets east. This was on the wall of the Hindu elementary school in Felicity.

Hours of lighting for tonight

Many hours are spent in setting out the deya pots for lighting. Some use a simple design, while others were quite complex.

Another use for bamboo

Bamboo is used to build the racks that the numerous deya pots are displayed for lighting.

Lights floating in a water garden

At this home a small temple was set up complete with a water garden and floating candles.

Not sure why this one showed up

We were surprised to see this stuffed character with a bottle of rum and a sign stating “Rum is meh lover”. May be it is an evil to be burned at the end of the evening.

Christmas or Festival of Lights?

Some of the homes moved away from the traditional deya pots and looked much more like Christmas back home.

Burning the "evil" one

The prayer flags

Some prayer flags as seen in front of this temple.

All the streets were lit beautifully

Modern Christmas lights are used to light every street for the festival of lights.

A view inside the temple

A view inside the temple that we were welcomed at in the city of Felicity.

The deya pots

These clay pots called deya are filled with coconut oil and a wick to be used in lighting up the village for the Festival of Lights, on the darkest night.

A quote from Gandhi

A quote from Mahatma Gandhi as seen on the wall in the temple.

One of many statutes

We need to learn more about the significance of all of the statutes that are found in the temple.

Tri-Star Tassa Welcome

The Tri-Star Tassa Drummers provided us a welcome presentation to the temple.

Shoes Are Left Outside

We all had to leave our shoes outside the temple before we entered as seen by this variety of foot gear.

Traditional Table Setting

The table was being set traditionally with soharee leaves as plates for our dinner being provided at the temple.

Our Traditional Hindu Meal

The food from left to right: breadfruit, pumpkin, curried mango and chickpeas (masala). The bread is broken up pieces of fried dough that you used to scoop up the food to eat. Everyone agreed to volunteer to do the dishes for this meal as there were no plates or silverware to wash. The food was very enjoyable.

The temple lit for the festival

One of the many temples located in the village of Felicity.

One of the homes

This home set up a temple and covered the area with lights. You can tell quite a bit of time and effort goes into this day.

Another Temple

We visited a much more elaborate temple. All are welcomed with open arms.

Welcoming Voices

There were people singing at this temple. The young boy greeted us and asked if we would stay to eat and the young girl shared the beautiful scent of a flower with all that visited the temple.

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Festival of Lights - Felicity, Trinidad

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