Hosay Festival in Jamaica

Hosay Festival, Westmoreland 1900s

This is a Muslim, East Indian Festival. Brought to the Caribbean by indentured workers in the 1840s. It is the Caribbean's verison of Moharram, an annual festival observed by Shi'a Muslims within the Islamic Faith. Moharram is the Islamic month when followers mourn the memory of the Prophet Mohammed's grandsons Hosain and Hasan.

1989: The scene on Spanish Town Road as dozen of Indian-Jamaicans celebrate the rituals of Hosay. The very expensive tabernacle, lifted at the centre, is blessed in a religious ceremony, carried through the streets and dumped on the sea.

From it's inception, it became secularized with the Hindu joining the Muslim brothers in organization and parade. There are nine days of mourning, mercia (eulogy) and meditation while people build Tazia or Tadjahs (bamboo and paper replicas of a tomb). On the tenth day, the Tazia is taken on a street procession led by a Tasa drummer playing martial music and follwed by sword, stick and horse dancers and 100s of 'mourners'. Other Jamaicans would also build Tazias and the process of creolization began. Hosay is the most popular of the Indian Festivals celebrated in Jamaica. The Clarendon Hosay is celebrated annually in the month of August.

Hosay Drummers 1970s

Hosay Drummers today