carnival and is perhaps most well known in Clarendon where it is celebrated each August. People of all religions attend the event. In the 1850s, very elaborately decorated models of mosques made of paper and tinsel called were carried through the streets to the accompaniment of constant drumming. Small fires were lit in the gutters beside the streets over which the drumskins were heated to tighten the skins of the tassa drums. Mock stick fights celebrate the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali. The festival lasts three days ending with the throwing of the into the sea at sunset on the third day. Although Hosay is a religious event for Shias, all of Trinidad's religious and ethnic communities participate in it, and it has become accepted as part of the national culture. The Remembrance of Muharram was continued to the Caribbean by Muslim Indian indentured labourers and other migrant laborers from India. The observance of Hosay in Trinidad is traced back to 1854. The celebrations encouraged social interactions and were a rare opportunity to cross color lines where those of Indian origin could mingle with those of African, Amerindian, Chinese or other backgrounds. Suppression In the 1880s the British colonial authorities became increasingly concerned about public gatherings, and in 1884 issued an ordinance to prevent the public Hosay commemorations. Thousands of workers, who had spent the year building their joined a Hindu named Sookhoo, in petitioning the government to allow the festival per their agreement with the Governor, who was visiting London during this episode. When all appeals were ignored by the Protector of Immigrants, through ignorance of the new July 1884 prohibition, defiance, or both, the were taken onto the streets at the appointed time, and in order of the estates. The first estate that took its onto the street had earned that right over the past months, and in some towns, Hosay went ahead. In Port-of-Spain (St. James) the police did not interfere, but in Mon Repos, San Fernando, on Thursday, October 30, 1884, buckshot was fired into the crowds of women, children and men. After shots were fired by the police to disperse the procession, 22 "Indians" were killed immediately. Later, 120 were found with injuries, some of whom had run into the cane fields to hide during the police attack. That day is commonly referred to in Trinidad history as the Muhurram Massacre by Indians and as