Trinidad and Tobago celebrates Holi

Mar 12, 2012 |

IANS

Port-of-Spain

Tags:

Led by Indian-origin Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Hindus in the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago joined the rest of the Indian diaspora to celebrate Holi.

At over 100 specially arranged competitions centres, cash prizes and trophies were given away.

The young and the old - accompanied by tass drums and cymbals - danced and paraded through the streets, making this year's celebration another grand one.

On Saturday, the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Cultural Co-operation led by Indian High Commissioner Malay Mishra marked Holi.

Holi is not a public holiday in Trinidad and Tobago so it is celebrated on the Sunday closest to the official date.

Said the prime minister: "It helps us to place importance on where we come from. Phagwa (Holi) is a season of hope and a time to renew our commitment to securing our future because the children here are our hope and our future."

Finance Minister Winston Dookeran said it was a tribute that the Indians who came here between 1845 and 1917 from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar had maintained their links with the motherland.

Some 148,000 Indians had come here to work on the sugar and cocoa plantations.

"It is a message of truth, honesty, graciousness and about life itself. It points to an aura of infinite spirituality," said Dookeran.

Around 25 percent of the 1.3 million people in Trinidad and Tobago are Hindus.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/133239" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-10493cd3ee46ecce13471cd947041dd3" value="form-10493cd3ee46ecce13471cd947041dd3" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80427904" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>