TriniView.com Reporters
Event Date: October 21, 2006
Posted: October 24, 2006
 | | | Deya lighting | |
The Divali celebrations have changed quite a bit over the years. In many respects things have improved in terms of the increasing popularity of the nine-day Divali Nagar celebrations, while on the other hand, the traditional lighting of deyas has largely been reduced to lighting very few deyas or having them replaced by Christmas tree lights. This was not the case for all the houses visited, but when observed on a large-scale basis, it was very noticeable that less and less people took the time to elaborately decorate their surroundings as was done in the past.
TriniView.com journeyed from Port of Spain to as far as Tunapuna on Divali evening to observe the ritual of lighting the deyas. Usually, deyas (earthen lamps), which are created from molded clay, are strategically placed around houses or on decorative designs of split bamboo tubes. The deya formations are usually very spectacular and many people, especially children, look forward to lighting and relighting the deyas. We observed, however, that there was a marked decrease in participation by the general public in lighting deyas in the areas that we went to.
Along the way, we met several interesting families such as the Sirjoo's and the Singh's. Many of them were in the process of lighting their deyas and maintaining the flames, while others relaxed on their porches or in front of their yards to enjoy some quiet family time. Some were even so generous that they invited us inside of their homes to partake of some food and drink and offered us sweets such as parsad.
In Aranguez, the TriniView.com crew were particularly spellbound by Jagessar Street which was lighted from the start to the end of the street. After mingling with some of the community members, it was pointed out that the Jagessar Street Cultural Committee was largely responsible for decorating the streets with a beautiful display of lights. This group, which has been in existence for approximately 8 years, consists of about 15 members ranging from about 8-30 years of age and they all have the ambition to sustain and uphold their cultural traditions. Thus, the members of this group thought that it was necessary to continue the tradition by getting the entire street involved in the deya lighting process. Some of the members of the group include: Vishal Kallicharan, Rishad Ali, Riaff Ali, Jeevan Arjoon, Riaz Ali, Prashant Rameshwarsingh, Trevor Seemungal, Rajeen Ramnath, Avinash Rameshwarsingh, Rajin Singh, Jai Teemal and Vijai Teemal.
According to one member, it was quite disheartening that the tradition of lighting deyas has decreased dramatically over the years. He explained that processes such as Westernization may be responsible for this. The Jagessar Street Cultural Committee is therefore determined to maintain and to spur more interest in this aspect of the Divali celebrations.
Hopefully, the effort and enthusiasm of the Jagessar Street Cultural Committee would spread throughout the rest of the country and the wonderful ritual of lighting deyas would regain the immense popularity that made it a prominent feature of Divali celebrations.
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