Hosay cel­e­bra­tions in St James came to an end last Tues­day evening. The name Hosay comes from “Husayn” (Hus­sain) who was as­sas­si­nat­ed by Yazid in Kar­bala. His mar­tyr­dom is com­mem­o­rat­ed in this fes­ti­val, which was once, in T&T, as big as Car­ni­val.

Lo­cal­ly, mul­ti-coloured mod­el mau­soleums, or Mosque-shaped mod­el tombs known as Tad­jahs (Ta’zieh), are used to dis­play the sym­bol­ic part of this com­mem­o­ra­tion.

They are built and pa­rad­ed, to the rhythm and stac­ca­to of pul­sat­ing drum­ming, its mu­si­cians hav­ing to un­der­go a strin­gent spir­i­tu­al cleans­ing at least a month be­fore Hosay be­gins with Flag Night.

Gen­er­al­ly, Hosay lasts for ten days and is ob­served in ac­cor­dance with the Is­lam­ic lu­nar cal­en­dar and in line with ten days Ashu­ra com­mem­o­rat­ed by Shia Mus­lims through­out the world.

The last four days are the most pop­u­lar as the first six days are days of fast­ing, prayer and build­ing of the “Tad­jahs” and “Moons.”

In San Fer­nan­do, thou­sands com­ing from the var­i­ous sur­round­ing sug­ar plan­ta­tions, par­tic­i­pat­ed in Hosay in the south.

But dur­ing the in­fa­mous Hosay Mas­sacre on Thurs­day, Oc­to­ber 30, 1884, un­der British rule, shots fired by the po­lice to dis­perse the pro­ces­sion left 22 par­tic­i­pants dead.

Their bod­ies are buried in var­i­ous spots in San Fer­nan­do, one be­ing the cor­ner of Mu­cu­rapo and Keate Streets.

So, the Mas­sacre brought the glo­ry days of San Fer­nan­do Hosay to a cli­max with the two main cen­tres of ac­tiv­i­ties now be­ing St James and Ce­dros.

On­ly in Ce­dros are the tad­jahs, which rep­re­sent mau­soleums, are tak­en whol­ly in­to the sea, as they are made pri­mar­i­ly of sty­ro­foam which is none biodegrad­able. Ma­te­ri­als used are tak­en back to the shore im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter the rit­u­al is per­formed at sea.