Edi­son Boodoos­ingh

The Hin­du Prachaar Kendra cel­e­brat­ed its 33rd Gan­ga Dhaaraa cel­e­bra­tions at the Mar­i­anne Riv­er in Blan­chisseuse on Sun­day.

Gan­ga Ma­ta (Moth­er) is revered in Hin­du wor­ship and cul­ture.

Her moth­er is Mena, and her fa­ther is Hi­ma­vat, the per­son­i­fi­ca­tion of the Hi­malayan moun­tains, with the Ganges Riv­er in In­dia be­ing the per­son­i­fi­ca­tion of the God­dess Gan­ga her­self.

The be­lief that bathing in the riv­er on cer­tain oc­ca­sions can bring about the for­give­ness of trans­gres­sions and the at­tain­ment of sal­va­tion.

It al­so com­mem­o­rates the com­ing of Holy Gan­ga to Earth.

The Riv­er Gan­ga or Ganges orig­i­nates from the Gan­gotri Glac­i­er at Gau­mukh in the Hi­malayas.

When the ice of this glac­i­er melts, it forms the clear wa­ters of the Bha­gi­rathi Riv­er.

As the Bha­gi­rathi Riv­er flows down the Hi­malayas, it joins the Alak­nan­da Riv­er, of­fi­cial­ly form­ing the Ganges Riv­er.

This riv­er is the most sa­cred and revered in Hin­duism and is wor­shipped by the name Gan­ga Maiya or Moth­er Gan­ga. The fes­ti­val in Trinidad was con­ceived and im­ple­ment­ed by Ravi Ji of the Hin­du Prachaar Kendra.

On this day, which is nor­mal­ly a Sun­day, Hin­du devo­tees from around the coun­try gath­er at the Mar­i­anne Riv­er in Blan­chisseuse from 8 am.

Clear­ing and prepar­ing the area along the river­bank would have been done on pre­vi­ous days, as the sta­tions are set up along the banks for var­i­ous rit­u­als and of­fer­ings.

One of the sta­tions vis­it­ed per­forms mun­dan san­skar, the shav­ing of a ba­by’s first hair, which is be­lieved to rid the ba­by of any neg­a­tiv­i­ty from their past life.

This is done be­tween four months and three years, while in Is­lam, it is done be­tween sev­en and 40 days.

The riv­er is filled with the sound of San­skrit chants, wor­ship, bells, conch shells, dho­lak and bha­jans as pu­ja is per­formed at these var­i­ous sta­tions.

The cli­max of the fes­ti­val in­volves the pro­ces­sion and im­mer­sion (vis­ar­jan) of the Mur­ti of Gan­ga Maiya as hun­dreds of yel­low but­ter­cup flow­ers are re­leased along with light­ed deyas placed in co­conuts.

All of these are col­lect­ed af­ter­wards in a catch­ment area low­er down the riv­er, as the im­por­tance of en­vi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion is stressed.