Hosay Procession on July 13, 2006

Hosay Procession on July 13, 2006

Hosay (originally from Husayn) is a West Indian commemoration and popularly observed in Trinidad and Tobago, a twin island country, in which multi-colored model mausoleums or Mosque shaped model tombs known as Tadjah to display the symbolic part of this commemoration are built and paraded, then ritually taken to the sea on last day of observance and finally discarded into the water.[1] Tadjah derived from Arabic word Ta'zieh and signifies different cultural meanings depending on the region, time, occasion, religion, etc. In British Guiana, now Guyana, and Suriname, the festival was called Taziya or creolized into Tadjah in reference to these floats, the most visible and decorative element of this festival.

The African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica/Jamaica Memory Bank