SAN­DRA L BLOOD

Dubbed by the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC) as the largest cel­e­bra­tion of the Fes­ti­val of Lights out­side of In­dia, the an­nu­al NCIC Di­vali Na­gar will once again il­lu­mi­nate the Na­gar site in En­deav­our, Ch­agua­nas, from Sat­ur­day to Oc­to­ber 19, un­der the theme “Nine Nights of Lo­ka San­gra­ha.”

The fes­ti­val, now a sta­ple on T&T’s cul­tur­al cal­en­dar, will show­case the rich­ness, vi­bran­cy, and di­ver­si­ty of the lo­cal In­di­an com­mu­ni­ty through mu­sic, dance, dra­ma, cui­sine, and spir­i­tu­al re­flec­tion.

The cel­e­bra­tions were pre­ced­ed by the 38th An­nu­al Yagna, held from Sep­tem­ber 28 to Oc­to­ber 4 at the Bis­ram Gopie Sangeet Bha­van, NCIC Au­di­to­ri­um.

The sa­cred week of prayer, wor­ship, and fel­low­ship fea­tured Pan­dit Shiv­an­nand Ma­haraj, who con­duct­ed poo­jas and Gee­ta Vahi­ni, along with Pan­dit Abe­danand Per­sad Shar­ma, who led dis­cours­es.

NCIC pres­i­dent Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo and the board of di­rec­tors have ex­tend­ed a warm in­vi­ta­tion to the pub­lic “to ex­pe­ri­ence nine nights you will not soon for­get—the largest cel­e­bra­tion of the Fes­ti­val of Lights out­side of In­dia.”

They added that this year’s theme, Lo­ka San­gra­ha—a San­skrit phrase mean­ing “the wel­fare of the world”—is es­pe­cial­ly time­ly.

“Root­ed in the an­cient wis­dom of Hin­du tra­di­tions, Lo­ka San­gra­ha speaks to a uni­ver­sal vi­sion: one where our ac­tions—whether in busi­ness, com­mu­ni­ty, or cul­ture—are guid­ed by val­ues, re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, and col­lec­tive well-be­ing, aimed at tak­ing care of a world that we can proud­ly pass on to fu­ture gen­er­a­tions,” the NCIC not­ed.

In a state­ment on Sep­tem­ber 29, the or­gan­i­sa­tion reaf­firmed that “Di­vali Na­gar has grown in­to one of the largest cul­tur­al fes­ti­vals in the Caribbean, serv­ing as a bea­con of cul­tur­al pride, ed­u­ca­tion, and en­ter­tain­ment, fos­ter­ing uni­ty among di­verse com­mu­ni­ties. This year’s theme high­lights uni­ty, the col­lec­tive up­lift­ment of so­ci­ety, and cul­tur­al preser­va­tion.”

Over 100 per­form­ers—from promis­ing young artistes and emerg­ing stars to es­tab­lished cul­tur­al icons—are sched­uled to ap­pear across the nine nights, de­liv­er­ing an im­pres­sive blend of mu­sic, song, dance, and dra­ma on the main stage.

Be­yond the night­ly en­ter­tain­ment, vis­i­tors can en­joy the­mat­ic ex­hi­bi­tions, cor­po­rate and NGO booths, folk the­atre, over 200 com­mer­cial booths, and an ar­ray of culi­nary de­lights.

Open­ing night will fea­ture an in­vo­ca­tion by Pan­dit Abe­danand Per­sad Shar­ma, re­flect­ing this year’s theme of spir­i­tu­al and so­cial re­new­al.

Among the dig­ni­taries ex­pect­ed to at­tend the cel­e­bra­tions are Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo, Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Michelle Ben­jamin, Min­is­ter of Ter­tiary Ed­u­ca­tion Prof Prakash Per­sad, Min­is­ter of Fi­nance Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo, In­di­an High Com­mis­sion­er Dr Pradeep Ra­jpuro­hit, Ch­agua­nas May­or Faaiq Mo­hammed, Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, and sev­er­al oth­er dis­tin­guished guests.

The fes­tiv­i­ties will cul­mi­nate on Oc­to­ber 19, with a spec­tac­u­lar clos­ing night fea­tur­ing head­line per­for­mances and a mid­night count­down to Di­vali Day.

Ad­mis­sion is free, with se­cured park­ing avail­able. For more in­for­ma­tion, con­tact (868) 789-9101.