Article A43 · Book 1 · Scrapbook page p.32
HOSAY PULLS THE CROWD
SOUTHERN EXPRESS Thursday, March 11, 1971 Page 3
CEDROS drew spectators from all over the country, last weekend.
It was "Hosay" — a concoction of religion and revelry, disacknowledged by Islam — on the Southern Peninsula.
And within a five-mile stretch, Bois Bourg to Fullerton, the villagers presented four massive but colourful Tadjahias (Hosays).
Each had their own team of tassas (drums) colourfully dressed with wailing women, warriors and gadka players.
There was no gadka (stick with shield) playing ... organisers claimed that that was banned by the police.
The Hosay from each village ... Bois Bourg, St. Mary, Bonasse and Fullerton ... converged at St. Mary, where in Carnival-like manner, participants joined spectators to "do their own thing" to the beat of the drums.
[Photographs: (1) A large, ornate white tadjah (Hosay) carried among a crowd of revellers, many of them children. (2) A tadjah under preparation, with a man adjusting its decorated panels and a young girl standing beside it. Caption, printed beneath the second photograph:]
LEFT: Bois Bourg's Hosay — with revellers on the road to Fullerton.
ABOVE: Getting ready for the road — at Bonasse, Cedros.
SIGN
Late Monday night the Hosays were ceremoniously lowered in the sea but every sign indicated there will be Hosay, again next year.
— HARRY SHARMA