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Indian Arrival Day, Trinidad and Tobago
On 30 May Trinidad remembers the first Indian indentured workers of 1845, with cultural events where women wear sarees and odhni.
![Title: [East Indian Women, Men and Children] Creator: Morin, Felix Date: ca. 1890-1896 Part of: Photographs of Jamaica, Trinidad, and Venezuela Place: Trinidad Physical Description: 1 photographic print: gelatin silver,](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/East_Indian_Women%2C_Men_and_Children_%2813227675614%29.jpg)
What is worn for Indian Arrival Day, Trinidad and Tobago
Indian Arrival Day, 30 May, is a public holiday in Trinidad and Tobago. It marks the arrival in 1845 of the ship Fatel Razack at Port of Spain, with the first Indian indentured labourers, who came to work on the sugar estates. More than 140,000 people from India came to the island before the system ended. The day is kept with pageants, music, dance and food, and many people wear Indian clothes. Women wear sarees, lehengas and salwar suits, and the odhni, the long shawl worn over the head. Descendants have also kept songs and a dance tradition, such as chutney music. Replicas of the ship are sometimes shown. The saree is worn at the celebrations.
The sarees
Written by the EveryPallu desk with AI assistance. Background: "Indian Arrival Day" 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