oli H
GUYANA Monday, March 17, 2014
guyanatimesgy.com
T
Guyanese Holi
oday Guyana will first be drenched with water and then smeared with every combination and permutation of all the colours of the rainbow.... and then some!!! It’s Holi... or Phagwah as some would have it. But a kaleidoscope will remain a kaleidoscope by whatever name we call it. And Holi is the most joyous kaleidoscope of colours under the sun. Brought from India by the indentured servants dragged from that land, to labour in the cane fields, the festival took deep root in its new soil and today has become a full fledged national festival celebrated by one and all. And why not? Even before it received “religious” connections, Holi was a festival celebrating the rebirth of Mother Earth in all her fecundity to give sustenance to all her children who had endured a dark winter.
While we might not experience the seasonal winter in Guyana, we certainly know what it is to survive between the crops - be it rice or sugar or provisions. Or in general to survive “hard times”. The joy when the crops will sprout once again erupts in our hearts because we too can reach for the sky. Traditionally Holi begins with the lighting of the pyre in which Holika had intended to immolate the boy Prahalad who believed in the one, true, living, God Vishnu. In Guyana, children would more mundanely cast dried coconuts tied to wires, into the fire and then enjoy the soon “roasted nuts”. Many believe that it leads to healthy teeth...but the kids don’t need even that rationale!
But the fire symbolises more that the destruction of good over evil or of the destruction of the arrogant over the humble - in the past. The fire in the present should remind us that evil and arrogance exists in the here and now and will do so in the future. The lesson of Holi, is that if a child can remain wedded to the truth and to God - who is Truth - why can’t we. We are all children of Guyana and it is our duty to build and not destroy it. Let us take the opportunity to destroy the evil and arrogance first from our own breast and then to demand that others do the same.
Happy Holi to all Guyana. HOLI Re!!