Georgetown: As always, thousands of persons lined the East Coast Demerara (ECD) seawall to observe the dazzling spectacle, which ushered in the Festival of Lights.
The Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha’s Annual Deepavali Motorcade hosted last evening saw motorcades gorgeously bedecked with representations of Mother Lakshmi and other depictions from the Scriptures, devotional music, intricate designs and much more.
The floats represented many different Madirs from along the East Coast of Demerara, West Demerara as well as Georgetown.
Young children had trampolines to wile the time, while the adults took a drink and kept an eye on them.
Most floats sat atop pick-up and Canter trucks.
President of the Sabha, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, attended the motorcades. She noted that this is the 40th year that the Sabha is holding motorcades around the country. There will be eight motorcades. Thousands of Guyanese will line the streets and converge at the various venues to enjoy the dazzling spectacle, which ushers in the Festival of Lights. There will be gorgeously bedecked representations of Mother Lakshmi and other depictions from the Scriptures, a kaleidoscope of lights, devotional music, spectacular cultural programmes and much more.
The fabulously decorated floats assembled at the Shri Krishna Mandir, Campbellville from 6pm and move west along Campbell Avenue into Sandy Babb Street, north into J.B Singh Road and east onto Seawall Road to the LBI Community Centre Ground. Mandirs, Youth Groups, families and commercial entities have been working tirelessly on their floats and from all indications; floats were simply magnificent. At the LBI Community Centre Ground, performances were done by the Dharmic NrityaSangh, Emerging Voices winners, the E-Networks Band, Sookrane Boodhoo, Rekha Singh and others. In excess of $3.5M in cash and trophies were presented to the winning floats in the small, large and commercial categories. Prizes were given for the most outstanding mandirs in each category and for the best overall designed float.
Admission was free and no alcohol was allowed. There were a number of food stalls offering a wide variety of vegetarian cuisine, mehendi stalls and lots of Diwali shopping opportunities at all venues.
On October 26 and November 1, the Mahila Mandalee, women’s section of the Sabha, will host children’s Diwali parties and concerts at the Pandit Reepu Daman Persaud Dharmic Sanskritik Kendra in Georgetown and at the Soesdyke Vishnu Mandir, East Bank Demerara respectively catering for some 600 children.
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