Hosay
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Hosay is the local manifestation of the Shia Muslim Festival of Muharram in Trinidad and Tobago<ref>Korom, Frank J. (2003). Hosay Trinidad: Muharram Performances in an Indo-Caribbean Diaspora. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. ISBN 0-8122-3683-1.</ref> and Jamaica<ref>Shankar, Guha (2003) Imagining India(ns): Cultural Performances and Diaspora Politics in Jamaica. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Texas, Austin pdf</ref> (where is it spelled Hussay). The name Hosay comes from "Husayn" whose marytrdom is commemorated in the festival. In Trinidad and Tobago it is primarily celebrated in Saint James, in northwestern Trinidad and in Cedros in southwestern Trinidad. Recently it has been revived elsewhere.
In the 1950s, very elaborately decorated models of mosques made of paper and tinsel called "tadjahs" were carried through the streets to the accompaniment of constant drumming. Small fires were lit in the gutters beside the streets over which the drumskins were heated to tighten the drumskins of the tassa. Mock stick fights celebrate the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali. The festival lasts three days ending with the throwing of the tadjahs into the sea at sunset on the third day. Although Hosay is a religious event for Shias, all of Trinidad's religious and ethnic communities participate in it, and it has become accepted as part of the national culture.
The Festival of Muharram was brought to the Caribbean by Shia Muslim indentured labourers who migrated from India in the 19th Century (see Indo-Caribbean people). The first observance of Hosay in Trinidad has been traced back to 1854, eleven years after the first indentured laborers arrived from India.
In the 1880s the British colonial authorities became increasingly concerned about public gatherings, and in 1884 issued an ordinance to prevent the public Hosay commemorations. Approximately 30,000 people defiantly took to the streets for Hosay in Mon Repos, San Fernando, on Thursday, October 30, 1884. After shots were fired by the police to disperse the procession, 22 men were killed and another 120 were wounded. That day is commonly referred to in Trinidad history as the "Hosay Massacre", or as the Hosay Riots.
[edit] References
<references/>
- Mendes, John. 1986. Cote ce Cote la: Trinidad & Tobago Dictionary. Arima, Tinidad.
[edit] See also
- Trinidad and Tobago Carnival
- Culture of Trinidad and Tobago
- Islam in Trinidad and Tobago
- Festival of Muharram
- Tabuik
