Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son

@guardian.co.tt

Sev­en­ty-five-year-old Leela Ma­habir has wit­nessed many bless­ings in her life, which she at­trib­ut­es to the di­vine work­ings of Si­pa­ree Mai, al­so known as La Div­ina Pas­to­ra. Since child­hood, she has jour­neyed to Siparia on Good Fri­day to pay homage to the de­ity at the La Div­ina Pas­to­ra Church dur­ing the an­nu­al Si­pa­ree Mai Fes­ti­val.

This year, Ma­habir, who lives in Five Rivers, Arou­ca, was ac­com­pa­nied by her daugh­ter, Karen. Ar­riv­ing around 8 am, she said, “I’ve been com­ing by Moth­er since I was a lit­tle girl. I am 75 now. I get a lot of bless­ings when I come here. I see things work­ing out dif­fer­ent­ly, in a much bet­ter way when I vis­it her. That is why I come here every year.”

Ma­habir has en­cour­aged her chil­dren to con­tin­ue the tra­di­tion. “I bring all of them,” she said, ex­plain­ing that her grand­moth­er used to say that in the Hin­du re­li­gion, Si­pa­ree Mai is Moth­er Kali, who rep­re­sents all moth­ers. This year, she prayed for good health, strength and longevi­ty, wis­dom and pros­per­i­ty, and pro­tec­tion for her chil­dren.

Hun­dreds of pil­grims vis­it­ed the church to pray and of­fer gifts to the stat­ue of Si­pa­ree Mai. For the fes­ti­val, the stat­ue is moved to a sep­a­rate room where devo­tees can make of­fer­ings. The fes­ti­val al­so fea­tures the tra­di­tion­al first hair­cut for chil­dren, be­lieved to bring health and strength.

Suneil Bals­ingh brought his sec­ond son, who will turn three next week, to have his hair cut. “His whole life in the uni­verse will be blessed, and it is a very aus­pi­cious day,” Bals­ingh said. The hair trim­mings are then of­fered to the ocean.

Bar­ber Sookoo Bridge­mo­han, a Pen­te­costal dea­con, has been cut­ting chil­dren’s hair for this oc­ca­sion for 49 years—a tra­di­tion passed down from his great-grand­fa­ther, who came from In­dia. “I fast and pray for chil­dren,” he said, adding that he be­lieves fol­low­ing this tra­di­tion en­sures a bet­ter life for them. Bridge­mo­han ar­rived in Siparia just af­ter 5 am, as­sist­ed by his son Jared.

The fes­ti­val is al­so marked by acts of char­i­ty, with many devo­tees giv­ing alms to the home­less and un­der­priv­i­leged who gath­ered out­side the church com­pound, some with chil­dren and ba­bies in their arms. Stalls sell­ing pro­duce, jew­ellery, clothes, and oth­er items lined the streets near the church, where vis­i­tors hunt­ed for bar­gains un­der the watch­ful eyes of po­lice of­fi­cers.