Happy Birthday Omana - Page 2

Holi is not a public holiday in Trinidad and Tobago so it is celebrated on the Sunday closest to the official date.

Said the prime minister: "It helps us to place importance on where we come from. Phagwa (Holi) is a season of hope and a time to renew our commitment to securing our future because the children here are our hope and our future."

Finance Minister Winston Dookeran said it was a tribute that the Indians who came here between 1845 and 1917 from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar had maintained their links with the motherland.

Some 148,000 Indians had come here to work on the sugar and cocoa plantations.

"It is a message of truth, honesty, graciousness and about life itself. It points to an aura of infinite spirituality," said Dookeran.

Around 25 percent of the 1.3 million people in Trinidad and Tobago are Hindus.