Despite having the protection of over 70 state police and privately hired security guards, the numbers of Hindu and Catholic pilgrims who go annually to worship the statue of La Divina Pastora in Siparia on Holy Thursday and Good Friday have continued to dwindle, presumably because of the worsening crime situation.
Surprisingly, even the numbers of beggars seemed to have declined. Unlike previous years where thousands of worshippers lined up inside and outside of the La Divina Pastora RC Church in Siparia, only about 500 people were seen inside the church’s compound yesterday. Outside the church, the usual brisk trade of market goods, clothing and haberdashery continued but vendors said sales were slow.
One vendor, Carmen Peters, said, “We have to sell out everything cheap because people are not buying like before. People pinching their pennies.”
Luther Jack, a director of Trinco Security Services, which was hired to keep order at the church, said barricades were set up to ensure crowd control but the expectant crowds never materialised.
“We did not see the crowds of previous years. It is six years now we are working here and everything is really more orderly this year because of the barricades,” Jack said.
But a senior police officer, who did not want to be identified, said many people had stayed away from the festival on Holy Thursday night because they were afraid of being robbed.
“People prefer to come in the day time, they feel safer. I know of several people who said they do not feel safe coming here any more because robbers know they are coming with cash to distribute to the poor,” the officer said.
He noted that 60 police officers from the Siparia Divisional Task Force, CID, Rapid Response Unit and Community Patrol Unit, as well as plain clothes officers kept watch in and around the church.
Geeta Ramlochan, a businesswoman from New Jersey, USA, who has been coming to the pilgrimage for the past five decades to distribute food to the poor, said she was also surprised by the few numbers.
“Usually we cater for 1,000 to 1,200 people but this year we saw just over 500 people coming to beg for alms. It is surprising, but we also think that people are no longer coming in their large numbers because of the fear of crime,” Ramlochan said.
But she said her family will not allow crime to deter them from carrying on the Good Friday tradition.
“We feel good when we give back. We make money all year round and we look forward to coming back home and giving to the poor,” Ramlochan said.
Seventy-six-year-old Margaret Seuraj, who is an elder in the historic church, said despite the challenges, people continue to flock to the statue because of the miracles they witness every year.
“People who want to have children are blessed with child and they dedicate their lives to coming here. We have people who are suffering from cancer and all kinds of ailments and they get healed. The Divine Mother answers prayers and this is why people continue to come,” she said.
The devotees make offerings of rice, candles, oil, flowers and jewellery to the statue. Catholics trace the statue’s origin to the Capuchin Catholic monastic order which came to Trinidad through Venezuela in the mid-18th century. In 1795, the special patroness was proclaimed to be La Divina Pastora by Pope Pius VI. Surgeon-Major D. W. D. Comins’s 1893 Report on Indian Emigration to Trinidad reported that Capuchin monks fleeing persecution in Venezuela brought the statue to Trinidad in 1730.
Hindus worship the statue as a reincarnation of Mother Lakshmi, Mother Durgaa and Mother Kali. People usually go to the venue from throughout the country and several parts of the world to see the pilgrimage.