Sunflowers and Butterfly in My Garden
Today is Mother's Day as marked in some parts of the world...North America and here in Trinidad. It comes a week after the procession of La Divina Pastora in Siparia, Trinidad and a week and a day after the First Saturday of the month of May.
If following my blog you will know I decided back in April to keep a pilgrimage every first Saturday to visit the statue of the Virgin Mary, as my first visit up to Mount St. Benedict here in Trinidad, was coincidentally during the Hindu celebration of Nav Ratri and on a First Saturday in April. So I decided I'd keep to this pilgrimage pledge and pay homage to the Virgin Mary in statue/murti form up at Mount St. Benedict every first Saturday for the next four months as I learnt this is a practice carried out by some Catholics. So my pilgrimage will end in July but it might be so nice I might decide to do it twice!:) That Mount surely seems to have a divine vibe going on up there...the peace, the presence...the awe that you feel when you bow to the statue of the Divine Mother in the church. I feel the vibe also has to do with the energy that is seeped there because so many devotees are there crying their woes out to the mother with such pure energy of devotion. I found out from my Brother in the sharing the Eucharist that is the Christ- Greg Kirk that it is OK to take photos within a church of the murtis...statues...but I've opted not too...it doesn't seem in good taste and it would only invade the sanctum of the devotees there...but the statue of the Virgin Mary there is so beautiful in form and art as well...a must see...I also take advantage of the fact that Catholics unlike Hindus have these padded thingys on which you can kneel onto in surrendering to the mother...so quite a comfy perk...but I have to get accustomed to having shoes on in there...I'd much prefer be barefooted...but I follow their ways when I'm in their place...I like the candles although just like deeyas in a way...just different in make up but same idea...and to me just as lovely to light and a practice to follow...
On this first Saturday visit I took my mother and my niece...three generations of women all in one...my niece was not so into it...or I feel she felt it but is at the age that she won't admit it and also still figuring so much out...but my mum feels exactly like me about the vibes up there and everything...she even says that after you leave the mountain after a certain distance away from it you can feel when you lose the vibe...and I say I'd have to agree...My mum thinks as me that she saw Jagadamba Mata when she bowed to the Virgin Mary statue and we had a talk on our drive down about how while pregnant in the nursing home, the nurse used to ask her (my mother) if she was Catholic when seen praying to the Virgin Mary statue and she explained no Hindu but same Mother... As we continued chatting about La Divina Pastora we both did not realise as my mother would later discuss with me that well the very next day the procession was on in Siparia...I was thinking for my 3rd 'first' Saturday I'd like to visit Siparia too...and my mum wished to join me...
You see in Siparia there is a statue in a church there that is seen as La Divina Pastora by Catholics but Hindus ever since have seen it as Suparee Mai or the Mother of Siparia...my mother told me the story that my great grandmother (her grandmother)...our family has roots in the area of Avocat and Siparia and well my great grandmother used to see the lady...according to the story my mother recalls the baby used to come out of a well...and then age over the day until the end of the day she was an old lady...and that happened everyday...the church was later built there...that's how her story is...passed down...Hindus considered the female form to be an incarnation of the Divine Mother in Hinduism some form of Shakti. But there are different versions to the story and here are some links about the story, the famous church and the Procession of La Divina Pastora in Siparia:
The Stories and the Festival
The Church
Daisy Voisin the legendary Parang queen was a staunch believer and worshipper of La Divina Pastora and a native of Siparia. Her funeral was done at the famous church and her famous parang band was named what else...La Divina Pastora...
So on this Mother's Day I celebrate the Divine Mother in the form of parang! Here she is Daisy Voisin singing about Trinidad's history...Spain, England, India...Independence...you hear in Spanish...
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL!
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