UCP's Ode to Diwali!

Remember we said if we were having any particular Diwali fun here at UCP we'd come share it with you all...although in general we here at UCP are on a bit of a go easy until the launch of the Advent calendar for 2010. Well we've been having that particular fun and so here we go! Here's a UCP poem for ya...it was developed for a small Diwali function that we are a part of organising yearly and was read by a lovely lady there at the function! It's particularly about Diwali or Divali (as it is often spelt there)as it evolved in the country of Trinidad and Tobago which is the home of the Meady's Musings Production House that houses the producers of UCP! So although UCP normally spells Diwali with the 'w' throughout this particular ode you will see it spelt as Divali with the 'v'. Although UCP normally goes with the 'w' spelling to cater for the wider audience it banters too...after all it is UCP-Universal Collective Prayer and so not just for those in Trinidad and Tobago and most other parts of the Hindu world spells it with the 'w'.

So here it goes...UCP's Ode to how Divali evolved in Trinidad and Tobago as it came as a festival with the indentured labourers in the 19th century from India and then grew into a national celebration!

Divali-An Evolution

A UCP poem written in free verse or shall we say the dance that is UCP! :)

You came in the hearts of ancestors
From a continent far away
Your light burned brightly within those souls
That occupied bodies that toiled and toiled

The Ramayan they read and often sang
As your deeyas they lit to celebrate the return of Raja Ram
For he is the hero of that great epic
That Sant Tulsidas had spun

The Goddess Lakshmi on your special evening came
To homes made of mud, bamboo and tapia grass
Prayers were said and then deeyas were lit
The villages came alive
With a thousand lights and smiles
One neighbour offerred food and drink to the other
Gifts were unwrapped and new things begun

And so you came to them and then us
Year after year after year
And we continued to celebrate your arrival
With good faith, reverence, cheer and prayer

The festivities began to spread
Whole villages gathered
To extol Shri Ram in the form of village theatre
A leela is a story and a story is a leela
So this story of Ram is Ramleela
And some of us have done this leela a 100 years since this year

We continued to gather to celebrate you
Bamboo bursting
Small stages performers began to alight
However on that one special night
All the villagers still stayed at home
To welcome the Goddess Lakshmi
And to bright deeyas light

Then we became independent
And the festivities continued to become more abundant
Larger events were held
Festivities came to towns
Garlanded mayors sang songs of praise
Your flame grew brighter
As momentum for you grew and grew
Oh Divali we so loved you
So much so that in '86 in your name a village was born
Divali Nagar it was named
You see you now had your own village
And wait that's not all...

Love for you continued to overwhelm us
Every office and company started to sing your praise
To celebrate you became the vogue
Your name had spread throughout the nation
You became a tourist sensation
Everyone wanted to dress for you in Indian fashions

And today Oh Divali
Your lights continue to burn brightly
Not only in the hearts of a few
But in the hearts of a nation
For you, Divali this must be overwhelming
To see your praise go on in weeks of celebration
To see brilliant fireworks displays
To have your own personal village
To be celebrated across the nation

But one thing Divali I'm sure must make your heart the warmest
Is that despite the evolution of you and us
Your light still burns brightly within our souls
We still as a people toil and toil
We still welcome the Goddess Lakshmi to our homes
And still special deeyas we light so bright
As with loved ones with sit in prayer and celebration
For on that special day named after you...
It is Divali!