Category: Trinidad & Tobago Festival Calendar

Trinidad & Tobago celebrations & festivals in 2020

Few things speak more eloquently to Trinidad and Tobago’s reputation as a place where people like to party, and as a multi-cultural melange, than the quantity and variety of festivals on the national calendar.

Hands covered with colourful abir powder at Phagwa (Holi). Photo by Nyla Singh

Phagwa or Holi

Each March in Trinidad & Tobago, the Hindu community recognises the beginning of the Indian spring and the Hindu New Year in a joyful explosion of colour, enjoyed by Hindus and non-Hindus alike

Divali in Felicity, Trinidad. Photo: Ariann Thompson

Divali: the festival of lights

Divali is one of the most beautiful, unifying, and anticipated holidays of the year, celebrated by the Hindu faithful — and the nation as a whole

Paddling the Ortoire River — kayakers look forward to the Maritime Ortoire River Race held in October every year. Photo courtesy the Trinidad Kayak Club

The Maritime Ortoire River Race

Paddlers delight Kayakers head to the southeast coast of Trinidad on Saturday 20 October to paddle in the ninth annual Maritime Ortoire River Race. Paddlers have been training in Chaguaramas over the past weeks, and there will be hot competition among paddlers to improve their standings. When & where The races start at 9am from

Fireworks. Photo by Kazim Daniel

Independence Day

Trinidad & Tobago Independence Day in a nutshell Independence Day — a public holiday — marks the occasion on 31 August, 1962 when Trinidad & Tobago’s became independent from Great Britain. The day usually begins with a parade of the various protective services at the Queen’s Park Savannah in Port of Spain and in Scarborough,

The flambeaux street procession is a hallmark of Emancipation celebrations. Photo by Maria Nunes

Emancipation Day

Celebrated on 1 August to commemorate the end of slavery in the British colonies (1838), Emancipation Day — a public holiday — is usually marked with street processions (a morning procession, including towering moko jumbies, and a flambeaux-lit Canboulay procession in the evening); religious and spiritual observances; cultural shows and performances (dance, music, and theatre,

Worship at a Muslim Mosque in Trinidad. Photo: Edison Boodoosingh

Eid-ul-Fitr

Eid-ul-Fitr, often shortened locally to just “Eid” (and sometimes spelt Eid al-Fitr internationally), marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan — the ninth month of the Muslim year, according to the sighting of the new, or crescent, moon. On the day Eid is declared, observances customarily begins before sunrise, with prayer and the

Divali Nagar dancers. Photo by Chris Anderson

Indian Arrival Day

This national public holiday (30 May) commemorates the arrival of the first indentured labourers from India on the Fatel Rozack in 1845, following the Emancipation of enslaved Africans in 1838. Waves of indentured immigrants arrived at Nelson Island, off the coast of Chaguaramas, before being sent to various estates where the living conditions were often