Michael Goring Speaks on Hosay

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Staff Article
Interview Recorded: May 25, 2005
Posted: June 27, 2005

Problems with the young people

Michael Goring

On the night of the big procession when they get to the Romeo Street junction, one Hosay must turn on the corner of Romeo Street, make a complete turn and stop facing the east. He leaves sufficient room on either side with both of the Moons. It's the two Brothers embracing one another. When they are finished, the bigger of the two will touch the Hosay, which is the Panchaite. The other one will go on the other side and do the same thing, and then they will walk forward and start dancing. The Tadjahs will be coming down the road, will now get Salami to touch it, and then they will embrace him. The one that comes from Cocorite, he would have been outside the route, so he will only get Salami when they turn to come back to go home. They turn at Madras Street. Only one Tadjah has to do the route, and that is at Romeo Street and at Madras Street.

Although I am not in the Hosay now, I still have to do what I am supposed to do. I leave here when the road is quiet. Maybe during the procession I can walk the streets and do what I am supposed to do. People think it is religious, but is not religious. You have to make yourself available. I do forty days of fast every year. As soon as we know the time is coming, we prepare ourselves. When you have done thirty days fast, you cannot eat. You have to gradually take your time to go back in. At the end of the ten days, on the night that the Hosay comes out, the younger ones eat. They do not enjoy it, because their stomachs were not working for the ten days, and they go and put curry in it. You have to go back into things very slowly. Even the fasting is a problem. If the fast starts Friday, we would start taking things to purge two days before so that we would be ready for Friday. You also have to push your thoughts away from you. You cannot be serving two masters. People say that when they are fasting it is a matter of just changing clothes. You have to put most things aside and concentrate on what you are doing.

We are having problems with the young people. I will give you an issue I was trying to teach a nephew of mine. When the prayers start, every night of the prayers, we who build the Hosay and the people who are interested come around and give money on the Chowke, which is where you pray. Somebody has to collect that money and that money goes to the priest, and that is known as Charagee. For ten nights money is going to be collected and the day that we are going to throw away the Hosay, the priest gets that money and it is his. Forget what he has charged for doing the prayers, that money is his. I told my nephew, "You will collect the money and keep it." On Flag Night he collected the money and when I met him on the road he said, "Uncle, I gave so and so the money." He did not understand what I asked him to do. You are not supposed to give the money to anybody but the priest, and only on the day following the day that the Hosay was being thrown away. It is a discipline. You are not supposed to count the money. You are not supposed to interfere with the money. It is money collected. We, who know better, do not put paper because paper cannot be washed, so we put silver. Other than that, we put the money in an envelope and we rest it there. These are the small things, which are making the Hosay become almost extinct now.

The older heads have not taught the younger ones and the younger ones are doing it for show. There is a word that the Moon Men use, Chamote. It is really the belt, but people feel it's help. When the guy goes in and he spins the Moon twice and he says 'Chamote', it is not help he is saying; he is calling for another belt. We are losing these things and it is unfortunate. I have been promising to sit down with quite a few people, but they just do not have the time or they do not want to spare the time. We can research it properly and do it how it is supposed to be done so that when I am gone, the young people will understand what they are doing. It is something not to be careless with. It is something we have to understand, and we have to work with.

I can remember an incidence where people got damaged with the Hosay. A truck came and it hit someone's foot and damaged the ankle. I am privileged to have twisted that ankle back into place at the same time ... the person was able to walk the next day. I remember when I was living in Woodbrook and I had gotten two keys. The Hosay was being built in Bay Road then, and I am really the person who puts it together. I was getting ready to put on the cloth and the flowers and was ready for the road. We had already done almost everything, but I had to bathe before I did that. With the two keys I had in my hand I had ague, serious ague. I went home, had a bath, and I came back and up. To this day, nothing is wrong. It is a matter of having faith, and I knew why I got the ague. It was three nights of work, and only getting maybe an hour or two hours rest because we were behind, due to a lack of help.

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