Divali Deyas | Photograph: Courtesy Geoffrey MacLean
Divali is the Hindu Festival of Lights that symbolizes the lifting of spiritual darkness. It is celebrated by the lighting of deyas, a small clay pot that contains oil and a cotton wick. Generally in Trinidad coconut oil is used as the fuel.
Divali is observed at the new moon in the month of Kartik in the Hindu calendar and can occur any day between the 14th day of the month and the 2nd day of the bright half of Kartik. It is observed as one of Trinidad and Tobago’s National Holidays.
To some scholars, Divali is based on harvesting festivals and a celebration of the triumph of good over evil or the destruction of the demon king Narakaasura by Lord Krishna.