Montreal    PSYHIC SHOW 2006                           

                                         Vandra doing an offering                                   Offering for Spring                                Special offering to Yemaya

              Offering to goddess of                                     Sommer preparing to                                                          Offering To Oshun

                       Rainbow                                               offer her Ebbos to Yemaya                                                       For Protection

                                                                    To all  My American Friends ! 

                                                                                    THE PRIDE OF T@T

                                                                                               Another Pride Of T@T

       Russian Fashion Russian Fashion Russian Fashion

                         One of the world's ten major fashion weeks, Russian Fashion Week comes to the World Trade Center Moscow. Eastern Europe's biggest style show invites dressed-to-kill celebrities, ever critical magazine editors and inspired buyers to view the latest designer catwalk collections.

                                                                          Rally del Salento

The Rally del Salento in Lecce is part of both the Italian and the European Rally Championships. Organised by the Automobil Club Lecce, it is a classic and one of the oldest races in Italy.From its first edition the rally has had an extraordinary fascination that divides drivers into two groups: those who love it and those who fear it. With beautiful landscapes, wonderful weather and the warm hospitality of Lecce, the special stages are unique, while the route is characterised by sharp turns which require great skill to negotiate.

                             Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, is the most popular of all the festivals from South Asia,to Trinidad and tobago  and is also the occasion for celebrations by Jains and Sikhs as well as Hindus.The festival of Diwali extends over five days. Because of the lights, fireworks, and sweets involved, it's a great favourite with children.The festival celebrates the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance, although the actual legends that go with the festival are different in different parts of India.The Times of India summed up the modern meaning of Diwali: Regardless of the mythological explanation one prefers, what the festival of lights really stands for today is a reaffirmation of hope, a renewed commitment to friendship and goodwill, and a religiously sanctioned celebration     

 Diwali dates The date of Diwali is set by the Hindu calendar and so it varies in the Western calendar. It usually falls in October or November.Diwali is a New Year festival in the Vikrama calendar, where it falls on the night of the new moon in the month of Kartika.Business people regard it as a favourable day to start a new accounting year because of the festival's association with the goddess of wealth.Diwali is also used to celebrate a successful harvest

A row of lights  The name of the festival comes from the Sanskrit word dipavali, meaning row of lights.Diwali is known as the 'festival of lights' because houses, shops, and public places are decorated with small earthenware oil lamps called diyas. These lamps, which are traditionally fueled by mustard oil, are placed in rows in windows, doors and outside buildings to decorate them.The lamps are lit to help the goddess Lakshmi find her way into people's homes. They also celebrate one of the Diwali legends, which tells of the return of Rama and Sita to Rama's kingdom after fourteen years of exile.In towns (and in trinidad and tobago)electric lights are often used in Diwali displays.In India oil lamps are often floated across the river Ganges - it is regarded as a good omen if the lamp manages to get all the way across. Fireworks are also a big part of the Diwali celebrations, although in recent years there has been a move against them because of noise and atmospheric pollution and the number of accidental deaths and injuries.

                                    Goddesses

                                 Two Goddesses in particular are celebrated at Diwali: Lakshmi and Kali.

                                  Lakshmi, wealth and prosperity For many Indians the festival honours Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth.People start the new business year at Diwali, and some Hindus will say prayers to the goddess for a successful year.Some people build a small altar to the goddess and decorate it with money and with pictures of the rewards of wealth, such as cars and houses.

                                Celebrating Lakshmi 

Hindus will leave the windows and doors of their houses open so that Lakshmi can come in. Rangoli are drawn on the floors - rangoli are patterns and the most popular subject is the lotus flower. This because images of Lakshmi traditionally show her either holding a lotus or sitting on one.There is much feasting and celebration, and the Diwali lamps are regarded as making it easy for Lakshmi to find her way to favoured houses.

Kali The goddess Kali is celebrated at Diwali in the Bengali and Oriya areas of India.

GamblingThe downside of the festival is that many Indians see it as an occasion to gamble. This comes from a legend that the that goddess Parvati played dice with her husband on this day and she said that anyone who gambled on Diwali night would do well.

Gifts Like Christmas in the West, Diwali is very much a time for buying and  exchanging gifts.Traditionally sweets and dried fruit were very common gifts to exchange, but the festival has become a time for serious shopping, leading to anxiety that commercialism is eroding the spiritual side of the festival.In most years shopkeepers expect sales to rise substantially in the weeks before the festival.Diwali is also a traditional time to redecorate homes and buy new clothes.

                               On 31st oct.2009

                       Did you know ?? Halloween (also spelled Hallowe'en) is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints. It is largely a secular celebration but some have expressed strong feelings about perceived religious overtones. Irish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America during Ireland's Great Famine of the 1840s.The day is often associated with orange and black, and is strongly associated with symbols like the jack-o'-lantern. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes and attending costume parties, ghost tours, bonfires, visiting haunted attractions, pranks, reading scary stories, and watching horror films.

 Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feastwhich always falls on the Sunday before Easter Sunday.  The feast commemorates an event mentioned by all four Canonical Gospels Mar 11:1-11 Matthew 21:1-11  Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19: the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in the days before his Passion. It is also called Passion Sunday or Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion.In many Christian churches, Palm Sunday is marked by the distribution of palm leaves (often tied into crosses) to the assembled worshipers. The difficulty of procuring palms for that day's ceremonies in unfavorable climates for palms led to the substitution of boughs of box, yew, willow, or other native trees. The Sunday was often designated by the names of these trees, as Yew Sunday or by the general term Branch Sunday.According to the Gospels, before entering Jerusalem, Jesus was staying at Bethany and Bethphage, and the Gospel of John adds that he had dinner with Lazarus  and his sisters Mary and Martha. While there, Jesus sent two disciples to the village over against them, in order to retrieve a donkey that had been tied up but never been ridden, and to say, if questioned, that the donkey was needed by the Lord but would be returned. Jesus then rode the donkey into Jerusalem, with the Synoptics adding that the disciples had first put their cloaks on it, so as to make it more comfortable. The Gospels go on to recount how Jesus rode into Jerusalem, and how the people there lay down their cloaks in front of him, and also lay down small branches of trees. The people sang part of Psalm 118 - ...Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father, David . ... (Psalms 118:25-26. Where this entry is supposed to have taken place is unspecified; some scholars argue that the Golden Gate is the likely location, since that was where it was believed the Jewish messiah would enter Jerusalem; other scholars think that an entrance to the south, which had stairs leading directly to the Temple, would be more likely (Kilgallen 210

                                                     Today ,the day after Good Friday, is called Holy Saturday, or Gloria Saturday. Those who call it Holy Saturday do so because it comes almost in the midst of Holy Week. Many prefer to refer to it as Gloria Saturday seeing this day as intimately connected with Easter Sunday. Today is a kind of waiting period for the festivities of Easter Sunday Holy Saturday (Latin: Sabbatum Sanctum) is the day after Good Friday. It is the day before Easter and the last day of Holy Week, in which Christians prepare for Easter. This day commemorates the day that Jesus Christ's body lay in the tomb.

Many churches hold special services on Easter Sunday, which celebrate the Jesus Christ's resurrection after his crucifixion. Many people also decorate eggs. These can be hard boiled eggs that can be eaten later, but may also be model eggs made of plastic, chocolate, candy or other materials. It is also common to organize Easter egg hunts. Eggs of some form are hidden, supposedly by a rabbit or hare. People, especially children, then search for them. In some areas, Easter egg hunts are a popular way for local businesses to promote themselves or may even be organized by churches.In Pagan times, many groups of people organized spring festivals. Many of these celebrated the re-birth of nature, the return the land to fertility and the birth of many young animals. These are the origins of the Easter eggs that we still hunt for and eat.In Christian times, the spring began to be associated with Jesus Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. The crucifixion is remembered on Good Friday and the resurrection is remembered on Easter Sunday. The idea of the resurrection joined with the ideas of re-birth in Pagan beliefs.  For people with strong Christian beliefs, the cross that Jesus was crucified on and his resurrection are important symbols of the period around Easter. Other symbols of Easter include real eggs or eggs manufactured from a range of materials, nests, lambs and rabbits or hares. Sometimes these symbols are combined, for example, in candy models of rabbits with nests full of eggs. Eggs, rabbits, hares and young animals are thought to represent the re-birth and return to fertility of nature in the spring.  

                     The person who was to become St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was born in Wales about AD 385. His given name was Maewyn, and he almost didn't get the job of bishop of Ireland because he lacked the required scholarship. Far from being a saint, until he was 16, he considered himself a pagan. At that age, he was sold into slavery by a group of Irish marauders that raided his village. During his captivity, he became closer to God. He escaped from slavery after six years and went to Gaul where he studied in the monastery under St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre for a period of twelve years. During his training he became aware that his calling was to convert the pagans to Christianity. His wishes were to return to Ireland, to convert the native pagans to Christianity. But his superiors instead appointed St. Palladius. But two years later, Palladius transferred to Scotland. Patrick, having adopted that Christian name earlier, was then appointed as second bishop to Ireland. Patrick was quite successful at winning converts. And this fact upset the Celtic Druids. Patrick was arrested several times, but escaped each time. He traveled throughout Ireland, establishing monasteries across the country. He also set up schools and churches which would aid him in his conversion of the Irish country to Christianity. His mission in Ireland lasted for thirty years. After that time, Patrick retired to County Down. He died on March 17 in AD 461. That day has been commemorated as St. Patrick's Day ever since. Much Irish folklore surrounds St. Patrick's Day. Not much of it is actually substantiated. Some of this lore includes the belief that Patrick raised people from the dead. He also is said to have given a sermon from a hilltop that drove all the snakes from Ireland. Of course, no snakes were ever native to Ireland, and some people think this is a metaphor for the conversion of the pagans. Though originally a Catholic holy day, St. Patrick's Day has evolved into more of a secular holiday. One traditional icon of the day is the shamrock. And this stems from a more bona fide Irish tale that tells how Patrick used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the Trinity. He used it in his sermons to represent how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit could all exist as separate elements of the same entity. His followers adopted the custom of wearing a shamrock on his feast day. The St. Patrick's Day custom came to America in 1737. That was the first year St. Patrick's Day was publicly celebrated in this country, in Boston. Today, people celebrate the day with parades, wearing of the green, and drinking beer. One reason St. Patrick's Day might have become so popular is that it takes place just a few days before the first day of spring. One might say it has become the first green of spring.