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A MONTH of activities to commemorate Deepavali 2012 will culminate with four days of spectacular events starting from November 9.
Assistant General Secretary of the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha, Dr Vindhya Persaud during an interview with this newspaper said the month of activities started off with the Diwali Utsav which was followed by several other tradition events. “We started that off with Diwali Utsav, our Diwali village and the highlight in that was that we had Shreya Ghosal and troupe from Indian in addition to our local artistes performing there and subsequently the sabha started its Rangoli competitions and those competitions have started off very well,” she highlighted.
According to Dr. Persaud, on November 2 the various Mandir’s in East Berbice (prant) held a Rangoli competition and was staged at the New Amsterdam Secondary School and the New Amsterdam multilateral.
This she said was well attended. It saw six schools participating and there were 12 groups, junior and senior, and of those groups the prize was won by the New Amsterdam Secondary School.
Subsequent to that on November 4, the second Rangoli competition was organised and that was held at the East Coast Demerara/Non Pariel Mandir organised by the East Coast Demerara prant, with over 150 participants and there were 12 groups in that competition.
The second set of competitions will be held on the 9th of November at 1pm. One will take place at the Tagore High School in Corentyne.
Some 150 students are expected to take part in that competition and also on the same day the West Coast Demerara prant will host an event titled Diwali village.
“They’ll be hold what they started about 1-2 years ago called a Diwali village where admission is free, its non-alcoholic and prior to the start time at 6 o’clock, we’re inviting people from around the country, those who are interested to participate in their Rangoli competition,” Persaud recalled.
This will be held at the Ocean View, Uitvlugt mandir compound.
Participants are being encouraged to be at the mandir as early as 4:30 pm so as to facilitate the formal programme which beings at 18:00 hrs.
“By then we hope the competition will be over and we can have prize giving later on in the evening,” she added.
According to Dr. Persaud on the day of the occasion there will be various Guyanese artistes dancing singing, and taking part in dramatic pieces.
She informed that the mandirs will be participating in the programme but prior to the programme there will be an outdoor Latchmie Pooja and artie, bhajans and there will be lots to eat, lots to drink.
“There will also be lots to buy, you can do your mehndi and you will have beautifully lit and decorated structure around the compound,” Persaud said.
Even while this was done before, she said it’s now being done on a grander scale and the whole environment will be transformed.
“So we’re starting the whole motorcade season with the Latchmie Pooja at the Ocean View mandir,” she noted.
The first set of motorcades start on Saturday. This will be followed by a Latchmie Pooja and then a Diwali village at Ocean View Mandir compound.
“They tend to have a big motorcade because a lot of their floats also come down to town when we have ours and the motorcade will also be at the Anna Regina Community Centre ground on that nightin Essequibo. They tend to have a lot of tractors and trailers; they also have a cultural programme,” Persaud continued.
Also the Blairmont community centre, that’s West Berbice prant, will also be holding their motorcade on Saturday while on Sunday East Berbice, Central Corentyne and Upper Corentyne will be having their motorcades and cultural programmes. On Monday the biggest motorcade is expected to be held. This starts from the Shri Krishna Mandir, Campbellville and moves to the LBI Community Centre ground.
There are already over 20 floats that are expected to be apart of the Diwali celebrations.
“We’re still getting more calls and usually what happens, after the motorcades around the country then people will join the motorcade on the eve of Diwali which is the 12th,” she related.
In addition, she said a guest artiste from Trinidad, Satnarine Ragoo will be coming in to participate in Diwali 2012.
This is an added complement to the festivities that will be taking place at the LBI community centre ground.
“This is in addition to our Guyanese artistes like Sukranie, Rekha, mona, Suchitra, the Caribbean Hotshot Band will be there, Dharmic Nrityasang, the Cummings Lodge mandir will also be doing dance, so it’s going to be a full and packed programme,” she asserted.
She disclosed that plans are in the pipelines to bring a guest artist for the other motorcades as well.
She emphasized that admission to all the motorcades is absolutely free and most importantly at all the motorcades, no alcohol will be allowed.
“We’re asking people to respect our request to desist from bringing alcohol, drinking it or selling it or having it anywhere along the route or within the environs that we’re having the motorcade. We want it alcohol free,” she declared.
Persaud revealed that in terms of the motorcade in town, there will be over $3M in prizes that will be given to the floats.
According to her in addition to the actual trophies and prizes, there will be special prizes that will be given to various mandir.
She advised that there will be a number of prizes where the mandirs will be judged on special criteria and receive special prizes from various companies.
She mentioned that there will also be commercial categories, in addition to the small and big categories, where the companies take part.
“In the last couple years the Beharry float, designed by Andrew Arts have been winning so we hope that this year they will have some competition from the other commercial entities,” Persaud said.
She urged the commercial community to come on board and support this and create something so that there can be the much needed hype.
“Dharmic doesn’t do anything formally because people tend to want to go to mandir or visit friends and family, but our mandirs will be open if people want to pass by, have parsad or they want to go in and do anything,” she informed.
However in the morning there will be having Diwali service at the Rama Krishna mandir.
“But in terms of any big parade or so, no, it finishes on the eve of Diwali. So from the 9th to the 12th, we have a full month of activities,” she continued.
This, Persaud said will be an annual procedure to have a month of activities because the new additions now makes Diwali more special and entertaining for the Hindu and the Guyana’s population at large.
“The motorcades are bigger and the show was very well received so people can expect that Diwali month to be a packed month and we’ll be adding on to and improving every year based on their response and enthusiasm,” she announced.
She stated that the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport have come on board and have supported it.
Assistant General Secretary of the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha, Dr Vindhya Persaud during an interview with this newspaper said the month of activities started off with the Diwali Utsav which was followed by several other tradition events. “We started that off with Diwali Utsav, our Diwali village and the highlight in that was that we had Shreya Ghosal and troupe from Indian in addition to our local artistes performing there and subsequently the sabha started its Rangoli competitions and those competitions have started off very well,” she highlighted.
According to Dr. Persaud, on November 2 the various Mandir’s in East Berbice (prant) held a Rangoli competition and was staged at the New Amsterdam Secondary School and the New Amsterdam multilateral.
This she said was well attended. It saw six schools participating and there were 12 groups, junior and senior, and of those groups the prize was won by the New Amsterdam Secondary School.
Subsequent to that on November 4, the second Rangoli competition was organised and that was held at the East Coast Demerara/Non Pariel Mandir organised by the East Coast Demerara prant, with over 150 participants and there were 12 groups in that competition.
The second set of competitions will be held on the 9th of November at 1pm. One will take place at the Tagore High School in Corentyne.
Some 150 students are expected to take part in that competition and also on the same day the West Coast Demerara prant will host an event titled Diwali village.
“They’ll be hold what they started about 1-2 years ago called a Diwali village where admission is free, its non-alcoholic and prior to the start time at 6 o’clock, we’re inviting people from around the country, those who are interested to participate in their Rangoli competition,” Persaud recalled.
This will be held at the Ocean View, Uitvlugt mandir compound.
Participants are being encouraged to be at the mandir as early as 4:30 pm so as to facilitate the formal programme which beings at 18:00 hrs.
“By then we hope the competition will be over and we can have prize giving later on in the evening,” she added.
According to Dr. Persaud on the day of the occasion there will be various Guyanese artistes dancing singing, and taking part in dramatic pieces.
She informed that the mandirs will be participating in the programme but prior to the programme there will be an outdoor Latchmie Pooja and artie, bhajans and there will be lots to eat, lots to drink.
“There will also be lots to buy, you can do your mehndi and you will have beautifully lit and decorated structure around the compound,” Persaud said.
Even while this was done before, she said it’s now being done on a grander scale and the whole environment will be transformed.
“So we’re starting the whole motorcade season with the Latchmie Pooja at the Ocean View mandir,” she noted.
The first set of motorcades start on Saturday. This will be followed by a Latchmie Pooja and then a Diwali village at Ocean View Mandir compound.
“They tend to have a big motorcade because a lot of their floats also come down to town when we have ours and the motorcade will also be at the Anna Regina Community Centre ground on that nightin Essequibo. They tend to have a lot of tractors and trailers; they also have a cultural programme,” Persaud continued.
Also the Blairmont community centre, that’s West Berbice prant, will also be holding their motorcade on Saturday while on Sunday East Berbice, Central Corentyne and Upper Corentyne will be having their motorcades and cultural programmes. On Monday the biggest motorcade is expected to be held. This starts from the Shri Krishna Mandir, Campbellville and moves to the LBI Community Centre ground.
There are already over 20 floats that are expected to be apart of the Diwali celebrations.
“We’re still getting more calls and usually what happens, after the motorcades around the country then people will join the motorcade on the eve of Diwali which is the 12th,” she related.
In addition, she said a guest artiste from Trinidad, Satnarine Ragoo will be coming in to participate in Diwali 2012.
This is an added complement to the festivities that will be taking place at the LBI community centre ground.
“This is in addition to our Guyanese artistes like Sukranie, Rekha, mona, Suchitra, the Caribbean Hotshot Band will be there, Dharmic Nrityasang, the Cummings Lodge mandir will also be doing dance, so it’s going to be a full and packed programme,” she asserted.
She disclosed that plans are in the pipelines to bring a guest artist for the other motorcades as well.
She emphasized that admission to all the motorcades is absolutely free and most importantly at all the motorcades, no alcohol will be allowed.
“We’re asking people to respect our request to desist from bringing alcohol, drinking it or selling it or having it anywhere along the route or within the environs that we’re having the motorcade. We want it alcohol free,” she declared.
Persaud revealed that in terms of the motorcade in town, there will be over $3M in prizes that will be given to the floats.
According to her in addition to the actual trophies and prizes, there will be special prizes that will be given to various mandir.
She advised that there will be a number of prizes where the mandirs will be judged on special criteria and receive special prizes from various companies.
She mentioned that there will also be commercial categories, in addition to the small and big categories, where the companies take part.
“In the last couple years the Beharry float, designed by Andrew Arts have been winning so we hope that this year they will have some competition from the other commercial entities,” Persaud said.
She urged the commercial community to come on board and support this and create something so that there can be the much needed hype.
“Dharmic doesn’t do anything formally because people tend to want to go to mandir or visit friends and family, but our mandirs will be open if people want to pass by, have parsad or they want to go in and do anything,” she informed.
However in the morning there will be having Diwali service at the Rama Krishna mandir.
“But in terms of any big parade or so, no, it finishes on the eve of Diwali. So from the 9th to the 12th, we have a full month of activities,” she continued.
This, Persaud said will be an annual procedure to have a month of activities because the new additions now makes Diwali more special and entertaining for the Hindu and the Guyana’s population at large.
“The motorcades are bigger and the show was very well received so people can expect that Diwali month to be a packed month and we’ll be adding on to and improving every year based on their response and enthusiasm,” she announced.
She stated that the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport have come on board and have supported it.
