Indian Arrival Day is a holiday celebrated on May 30 in Trinidad and Tobago each year since the

1990s. It commemorates the first arrivals from the Indian subcontinent toTrinidad, on May 30, 1845,
on the ship Fatel Razack (a rendering of the Arabic Fath Al Razak 'Victory to Allah the Sustainer').
The many versions of the spelling for this historic ship reflects the difficulties of pronunciation and
transliteration of foreign and East Indian names in Trinidad (as with the street festival of "Muhurram"
or "Hosay" and "Hussay").
History of the celebration[edit]
Indian Arrival Day was first celebrated in Skinner Park, San Fernando, as the East Indian Centenary
on May 30, 1845
[2]
which marked the hundredth anniversary of the coming of Indians to Trinidad.
The Acting Governor representing the Government of the United Kingdom attended indicating the
significance of the observance. Other local dignitaries who addressed the large crowd included
Timothy Roodal, George Fitzpatrick, Adrian Cola Rienzi, and Murli J. Kirpalani. Greetings were also
read from Mahatma Gandhi, Lord Wavell, and Colonel Stanley, the Secretary of State for the
Colonies.
After the 1945 Centenary extravaganza, however, the celebration of the anniversary of May 30
gradually declined. By the 1950s, the East Indians who followed the Fatel Razack as immigrants to
Trinidad were brought over not as free immigrants and farmers, but as "coolies". By the early
seventies only the Hindu group the Divine Life Society of the Chaguanas was staging an annual
procession and ceremony under the name Indian Emigration Day.
Indian Emigration Day, as it was called then, had been celebrated by various organizations after
1945 with limited success. By 1973 the latest was organized by the Divine Life Society, which had
organized small annual processions in Chaguanas for Indian Emigration Day. By the late seventies
even that small remembrance was dwindling.
In 1976 the Indian Revival and Reform Association (IRRA) was formed. They were concerned about
racism against Indians and were interested in developing ideas, writing pamphlets to bring about an
Indian revival and renewed pride in Indian heritage and Indian culture. The IRRA wanted to preserve
the good things about Indian heritage and reform the ones that were no longer useful or relevant.
The anniversary of the coming of Indians to guyana was one of the good things that came to the
IRRA notice.
In 1977 IRRA formed committee was established to revive the memory of the coming of Indians to
Trinidad on May 30, 1845 - Indian Emigration Day. The initial historic Committee comprised Anand
Rameshwar Singh, Khalique Khan, Ramdath Jagessar, Rajiv Sieunarine, Azamudeen "Danny" Jang,
Michael Sankar and Rajesh Harricharan. The following year Rajnie Ramlakhan, Anand Maharaj and
Ashok Gobin joined in the group's celebration.
The first active step was taken in early 1978, when they produced and distributed an onepage
pamphlet with the title Indian Emigration Day May 30, 1978. It gave a brief account of the coming
of Indians in 1845, and the importance of the event. The names of the first pioneers on the Fath-al
Razack were listed, and there was a short description of the achievements of Indians in Trinidad
since 1845. The Trinidad Express carried a press release, and the Trinidad Guardian printed an
article by Kusha Haracksingh on the voyage of the Fath-al Razack. Mastana Bahar dedicated a
show to Indian Emigration Day. San Fernando Secondary School organized a celebration.
A major turning point occurred in 1979 when the group expanded by approaching the Sanatan
Dharma Maha Sabha. The SDMS Secretary General Satnarayan Maharaj receptive to the idea,
agreed to organize a major celebration at Lakshmi Girls College on May 27, 1979. IRRA and the
SDMS in discussions agreed that Indians were no longer emigrants to Trinidad, but citizens who had
arrived 134 years before. Coming out of this discussion the name was then changed to Indian Arrival
Day.
The 1979 celebration was a great success and included the presence of some of the original
immigrants born in India. Government ministers Sham and Kamal Mohammed were there, as was
the Indian High Commissioner and Presbyterian Church moderator Idris Hamid. The event was
widely covered by the local media and immediately knew about the event. In fact it took just two
years and an idea to revive the memory of the Arrival of Indians in Trinidad to awaken the entire
Indian community in Trinidad.
Subsequent years the Hindu Seva Sangh and other smaller groups approached the IRRA for
guidance in developing in various communities throughout Trinidad. By 1980 Indian Arrival Day
celebrations were held at the Spring Village, Cedros, Penal, San Juan, Chaguanas, and many other
parts of the country. The National Joint Action Committee, theCatholic Church, libraries, mosques,
mandirs and schools at this point joined in the observances. In a remarkably short time, Indian
Arrival Day was sweeping through the country. By 1985 there were more than 10 significant Indian
Arrival Day celebrations taking place. The Hindu community took the lead in the development of the
celebrations.
In 1991 Members of Parliament Trevor Sudama and Raymond Pallackdarrysingh first introduced to
the House of Representatives the concept that Indian Arrival Day should be made a national public
holiday. This call to make Indian Arrival Day a public holiday continued to be unheeded until 1995
Prime Minister Patrick Manning declared that the 150th Anniversary would be a public holiday called
Indian Arrival Day, but thereafter the holiday will be called Arrival Day. The 1995 celebrations
surpassed the 1945 celebrations with the Maha Sabha having major celebrations in Trinidad.
In 1995 Prime Minister Basdeo Panday declared that 30 May would be known as Indian Arrival Day
and not Arrival Day. Ironically, in the birthplace of Indian Arrival Day Trinidad there is a lobby to
remove the word 'Indian' from the name. In the 1990s the Maha Sabha expanded the Indian Arrival
Day celebrations and dubbed May as "Indian Month" which ends on Indian Arrival Day.

CORPUS CHRISTI

he Feast of Corpus Christi (Latin for Body of Christ), also known as Corpus Domini, is a Latin
Rite liturgical solemnitycelebrating the tradition and belief in the body and blood of Jesus Christ and
his Real Presence in the Eucharist. It emphasizes the joy of the institution of the Eucharist, which
was observed on Holy Thursday in the somber atmosphere of the nearness of Good Friday.
In the present Roman Missal, the feast is designated the solemnity of The Most Holy Body and
Blood of Christ.
[1]
It is also celebrated in some Anglican, Lutheran, and Old Catholic Churches that
hold similar beliefs regarding the Real Presence.
The feast is liturgically celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday or, "where the Solemnity of
the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ is not a holy day of obligation, it is assigned to the Sunday
after the Most Holy Trinity as its proper day".
[1]
At the end of Holy Mass, there is often
a procession of the Blessed Sacrament, generally displayed in a monstrance. The procession is
followed byBenediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
A notable Eucharistic procession is that presided over by the Pope each year in Rome, where it
begins at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran and makes its way to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major,
where it concludes with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

The institution of Corpus Christi as a feast in the Christian calendar resulted from approximately forty
years of work on the part of Juliana of Lige, a 13th-century Norbertinecanoness. Juliana de
Cornillon, between 1191 and 1192 in Lige, Belgium, a city where there were groups of women
dedicated to Eucharistic worship. Guided by exemplary priests, they lived together, devoting
themselves to prayer and to charitable works. Orphaned at the age of five, she and her sister Agnes,
were entrusted to the care of the Augustinian nuns at the convent and leprosarium of Mont-Cornillon,
where Juliana developed a special veneration for the Blessed Sacrament.
[2]







LABOUR DAY

Eid Ul Fitr

Eid al-Fitr (Arabic: d al-Fir, IPA: [id al fitr], "festival of breaking of the fast"), also
called Feast of Breaking the Fast, theSugar Feast, Bayram (Bajram), the Sweet Festival
[3]
and
the Lesser Eid, is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslimsworldwide that marks the end
of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting (sawm). The religious Eid is a single day during which
Muslims are not permitted to fast. The holiday celebrates the conclusion of the 29 or 30 days of
dawn-to-sunset fasting during the entire month of Ramadan. The day of Eid, therefore, falls on the
first day of the month of Shawwal. This is a day when Muslims around the world show a common
goal of unity. The date for the start of any lunar Hijri month varies based on the observation of new
moon by local religious authorities, so the exact day of celebration varies by locality. However, in
most countries, it is generally celebrated on the same day as Saudi Arabia.
[2]

Eid al-Fitr has a particular Salat (Islamic prayer) consisting of two Rakats (units) and generally
offered in an open field or large hall.
[4]
It may be performed only in congregation (Jamaat) and, has
an additional extra six Takbirs (raising of the hands to the ears while saying "Allhu Akbar", literally
"God is greatest"), three of them in the beginning of the first raka'ah and three of them just
beforeRuku' in the second raka'ah in the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam.
[5]
Other Sunni schools usually
have twelve Takbirs, seven in the first, and five at the beginning of the second raka'ah. This Eid al-
Fitr salat is, depending on which juristic opinion is followed, Fard(obligatory), Mustahabb (strongly
recommended, just short of obligatory) or mandoob (preferable).
Muslims believe that they are commanded by God, as mentioned in the Quran, to continue their fast
until the last day of Ramadan
[6]
and pay the Zakat and fitra before offering the Eid prayers.
As an obligatory act of charity, money is paid to the poor and the needy (Arabic: Sadaqat-ul-fitr)
before performing the Eid prayer:
[11]

To show happiness
To give as much charity as is possible
To pray Fajr in the local Masjid
To go early for Eid salaat
To read the takbirat in an open field.
Go to the Eid prayer on foot
Do not speak one word other than words that remember Allah or anything Islamic terms before
and after Eid Salaat. You can speak once you've left the Masjid, or Mosque or any other place
you were praying
Say Eid Mubarak to other Muslims
Muslims recite the following incantation in a low voice while going to the Eid prayer: Allhu
Akbar, Allhu Akbar, Allhu Akbar. L ilha ill l-Lh wal-Lhu akbar, Allahu akbar walil-Lhi l-
amd. Recitation ceases when they get to the place of Eid or once the Imam commences
activities.
[12]

Muslims are recommended to use separate routes to and from the prayer grounds.


Emancipation Day
On August 1, 1838, the enslaved Africans throughout the British Empire in the Caribbean
were finally freed from the bondage of chattel slavery.

In 1985, August 1, Emancipation Day, was declared a national
holiday. Since 1985, Emancipation celebrations have grown into a major national festival,
where tens of thousands of people participate in various activities.

The Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad & Tobago hosts a week of activities
leading up to Emancipation Day including cultural performances in music, song and dance.
Over the past years, leading international artistes such as the world renowned National
Senegalese Ballet, Lorraine Klassen and Jabu Khanyile from South Africa have performed in
the celebrations.
Other activities include an art exhibition, lectures by prominent Pan African scholars,
opportunities for networking and business development through the annual International
Trade and Investment Symposium.

There is a chance to purchase African artifacts, paintings and clothing in the market place,
popularly called the Trans-Atlantic Exposition, which attracts traders from Ghana, Tanzania,
Nigeria, the Caribbean region and North America.

The Kamboule (street procession) on Emancipation Day is theatre in motion, a mass
procession throughout the streets of the capital Port of Spain, featuring African drums,
steelband, moko jumbies and dance groups. The day ends with the Flambeau Procession
later in the night, recalling the rebellion of the African Ancestors against slavery.

Within recent times, Emancipation celebrations have attracted an increasing number of
foreign visitors from across the African diaspora. Trinidad & Tobago is now dubbed the
Emancipation Capital of the world and the celebrations form one of the worlds foremost
African festivals.

Independence Day
Trinidad and Tobago gained its independence from the United Kingdom on 31 August 1962.
[35]
Eric
Williams, a noted Caribbean historian, widely regarded as "The Father of The Nation," was the first
Prime Minister; he served from 1956, before independence, until his death in 1981.
The presence of American military bases in Chaguaramas and Cumuto in Trinidad during World War
II profoundly changed the character of society. In the post-war period, the wave
of decolonisation that swept the British Empire led to the formation of the West Indies Federation in
1958 as a vehicle for independence. Chaguaramas was the proposed site for the federal capital. The
Federation dissolved after the withdrawal of Jamaica and the government chose to seek
independence on its own.
[citation needed]

In 1976, the country severed its links with the British monarchy and became a republic within
the Commonwealth, though it retained the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as its final Court
of Appeal. Between the years 1972 and 1983, the Republic profited greatly from the rising price
of oil, as the oil-rich country increased its living standards greatly. In 1990, 114 members of
the Jamaat al Muslimeen, led by Yasin Abu Bakr, formerly known as Lennox Phillip, stormed
the Red House (the seat of Parliament), and Trinidad and Tobago Television, the only television
station in the country at the time, and held the country's government hostage for six days before
surrendering.
[citation needed]

Since 2003, the country has entered a second oil boom, a driving force which the government hopes
to use to turn the country's main export back to sugar andagriculture.
[citation needed]
Great concern was
raised in August 2007 when it was predicted that this boom would last only until 2018. Petroleum,
petrochemicals and natural gascontinue to be the backbone of the economy. Tourism and the public
service are the mainstay of the economy of Tobago, though authorities have begun to diversify the
island.
[37]
The bulk of tourist arrivals on the islands are from Western Europe.
[citation needed]