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Aapravasi Day, Mauritius
On 2 November Mauritius remembers the first indentured Indian workers of 1834 at the Aapravasi Ghat, with sarees and ceremonies.
What is worn for Aapravasi Day, Mauritius
Aapravasi Day, 2 November, is a public holiday in Mauritius. It marks the arrival in 1834 of the ship Atlas, carrying the first Indian indentured labourers to work on the sugar estates. They landed at the Aapravasi Ghat in Port Louis, the immigration depot, which UNESCO has listed as a World Heritage site since 2006. The day is kept with a ceremony at the site, and with prayers, music and talks. Many people of Indian origin, who are the largest community of the island, wear Indian clothes. Women wear sarees or salwar suits,. The saree is also worn at Hindu weddings and festivals on the island.
The sarees
Written by the EveryPallu desk with AI assistance. Background: "Aapravasi Ghat" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Sari: Suyash.dwivedi, CC BY-SA 4.0, source