Each year, around the feast of Our La­dy of Mount Carmel, the Care­nage com­mu­ni­ty gath­ers for the an­nu­al bless­ing of the boats and fish­er­men, a long-stand­ing tra­di­tion that com­bines faith with the area’s fish­ing her­itage.

The St Pe­ter’s Day Fes­ti­val, or­gan­ised by the Ro­man Catholic Church with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of lo­cal fish­er­men and res­i­dents, is held to pray for the safe­ty of those who make their liv­ing at sea.

Fish­er­men, their fam­i­lies and boat own­ers gath­er for mass be­fore priests bless the ves­sels with holy wa­ter, ask­ing for pro­tec­tion, favourable weath­er and suc­cess­ful catch­es through­out the year.

Af­ter the bless­ing, the boats, many dec­o­rat­ed with flags and oth­er or­na­ments, leave the har­bour in a pro­ces­sion across the Gulf of Paria.

The event at­tracts res­i­dents and vis­i­tors who line the wa­ter­front to watch the flotil­la and take part in the day’s ac­tiv­i­ties.

The bless­ing al­so serves as a re­minder of the strong con­nec­tion be­tween re­li­gion and com­mu­ni­ty life in many coastal vil­lages. For old­er fish­er­men, it is a tra­di­tion they have ob­served since child­hood, while younger par­tic­i­pants con­tin­ue to car­ry it for­ward.

Al­though cen­tred on prayer, the event has al­so be­come a com­mu­ni­ty cel­e­bra­tion, bring­ing to­geth­er fam­i­lies, friends and vis­i­tors to sup­port the fish­ing com­mu­ni­ty and pre­serve one of Care­nage’s best-known an­nu­al cus­toms.

The Bless­ing of the Boats and Fish­er­men re­mains an im­por­tant fix­ture on the com­mu­ni­ty’s cal­en­dar, high­light­ing both the cul­tur­al and re­li­gious tra­di­tions that con­tin­ue to shape life in Care­nage.