{"id":139,"date":"2013-11-02T22:43:05","date_gmt":"2013-11-03T02:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/?p=139"},"modified":"2014-04-17T11:35:31","modified_gmt":"2014-04-17T15:35:31","slug":"illumination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/?p=139","title":{"rendered":"Illumination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/?attachment_id=141\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-141\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-141\" alt=\"Diyas\" src=\"http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Diyas-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Diyas-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Diyas-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Diyas.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Candles for the dead, and diyas for Divali. This is a weekend of light.<\/p>\n<p>Today, November 2, is All Soul&#8217;s Day \u2013 a day when, in the Christian tradition, persons remember those who have passed and pray that their souls are granted eternal rest. On this date, images of my maternal grandmother always come to the fore. I still see her: Lighting a candle in memory of her dearly departed and reciting prayers on the rosary that was always\u00a0at hand, having faith that her supplications would be heard. The ritual was solemn but not sad, and even as a child I <i>felt<\/i> the importance of the tall white candle that she watched over as dusk turned to night. A light that dispelled darkness.\u00a0Just as diyas all over the world will do this weekend for the Hindu Festival of Lights.<\/p>\n<p>I am not Hindu, but Divali is one of the many festivals celebrated in Trinidad and Tobago in which the population as a whole generally participates, regardless of religion. \u00a0Presentations are given every year at assemblies in primary and secondary schools, Hindu families invite neighbours and friends to their homes to celebrate and share in sumptuous banquets, and throughout both islands persons of all ages\u00a0gather to light and enjoy elaborate displays of diyas erected on bamboo frames. There is no doubt that the concept of light conquering darkness is one that most of us find heartening.<\/p>\n<p>Since\u00a0it has been a long time since I took part in Divali celebrations,\u00a0I decided that I could observe the festival in my own small way this year.\u00a0Needless to say, the lady at the Indian grocery seemed genuinely intrigued that I not only knew about Divali, but was also buying diyas along with cotton wicks, coconut oil, Madras curry powder, tandoori naan and tamarind concentrate. We had a nice chat about my homeland and at the end she extended an invitation to attend tomorrow\u2019s festivities at the local Hindu temple.\u00a0Wow! Just like that\u00a0I felt like a neighbour and friend.<\/p>\n<p>Shubh Divali!<\/p>\n<div class='watch-action'><div class='watch-position align-left'><div class='action-like'><a class='lbg-style1 like-139 jlk' href='javascript:void(0)' data-task='like' data-post_id='139' data-nonce='9a991690c2' rel='nofollow'><img class='wti-pixel' src='http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/wti-like-post\/images\/pixel.gif' title='Like' \/><span class='lc-139 lc'>135<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div> <div class='status-139 status align-left'><\/div><\/div><div class='wti-clear'><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Candles for the dead, and diyas for Divali. This is a weekend of light. Today, November 2, is All Soul&#8217;s Day \u2013 a day when, in the Christian tradition, persons remember those who have passed and pray that their souls<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/?p=139\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":261,"href":"http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions\/261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.culturallycaribbean.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}