This Caribbean Island's Carnival Was Inspired by Ashura in India and Iran
Culture and Society Blog, Kodoom.com Editorial
From original article: Every year, thousands of people line up along the streets of Trinidad to admire the vibrant floats with beautifully bedecked models of mausoleums being pushed out into the waters of the Caribbean as part of the Hosay commemorations, a religious ritual inspired by Ashura, as reported by Ken Chitwood for The Conversation.
In Trinidad, the 100,000 Muslims who make up 5 percent of the island’s total population, celebrate the day of Ashura, as Hosay – the name derived from “Hussein.”
During the 10 days of the Islamic month of Muharram, Shiite Muslims around the world, in countries like Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon and India remember the martyrdom of Hussein, Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, who was killed in a battle in Karbala, today’s Iraq, some 1,338 years ago. For Shiite Muslims Hussein is the rightful successor to Prophet Muhammad. The commemoration has also become a symbol for the broader Shiite struggle for justice as a minority in the global Muslim community.
The first Hosay festival in Trinidad was held in 1854, just over a decade after the first Indian Muslims began to arrive from India to work on the island’s sugar plantations. But Trinidad at the time was under British colonial rule and large public gatherings were not permitted. In 1884, the British authorities issued a prohibition against Hosay commemorations. Approximately 30,000 people took to the streets, in Mon Repos, in the south, to protest against the ordinance. Shots fired to disperse the crowd killed 22 and injured over 100. The ordinance was later overturned.
The “Hosay Massacre” or “Muharram Massacre,” however, lives in people’s memories.
Rather than recreate the events through self-flagellation or other forms of suffering, however, people in Trinidad, in a somber yet joyous manner, create bright and beautiful floats resembling Taj Mahal, called “tadjahs,” that parade through the streets to the sea.
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