Holi across the oceans
Indians living across the world never forget to celebrate their festivals. Be it Diwali, Gupurab or Holi, we celebrate it with full energy and a splash of colours of the rainbow.
Holi is a spring festival celebrated by Hindus, as a festival of colours. Over the years, this day festival has become an importantfixture in many regions wherever Indian diaspora had found its roots, be it in Africa, North America, Europe or closer to home in South Asia. Every year, thousands of Hindus participate in the festival Holi. It has many purposes.
First and foremost, it celebrates the beginning of the new season, spring and its importance also lie in Hindu mythology.
I have lived a significant part of my life in several parts of the world
– Africa, Middle East, Europe and the USA where Holi is celebrated and in my journalism career while assignments abroad found myself enjoying the event in
Together, the entire Asian community showed such love and friendship despite their religious backgrounds, and we all often joined to celebrate each other’s festivals in their respective places of worship.
South Africa, and, as far away as Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica.
I have childhood memories of taking part in Holi festivities while living and growing in Tanzania, East Africa. I lived in a town called Kigoma, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, in western Tanzania, which was a melting pot of a small community of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims - all collectively called Asians. They formed the backbone of professionals and the local business setups.
Together, the entire Asian community showed such love and friendship despite their religious backgrounds ,and we all often joined to celebrate each other’s festivals in their respective places of worship. Hindus and Sikhs attended the Hindu Mandir on the shores of the 4,820 feet deep Lake Tanganyika, the world’s second largest and deepest sweet water lake in the Rift Valley after Lake Baikal in Russia.
The dominant Hindu community of the town consisted of Gujaratis followed by Punjabis and few Bengalis.
Asian migration to the then Tanganyika (later renamed Tanzania) started in the 1800s, but they were joined by other groups over the years. Many Asians in Kigoma formed part of the new arrivals of the 1950s onwards.
This generation had settled in Tanzania from the Indian sub-continent and was fully aware of the significance of Holy – the arrival of spring in India and others who knew of the importance of this
Festival of Colours explained its importance in the mythology – the victory of good over evil after the thwarting of a Hindu demon King. I remember well the night before Holi when a Holika bonfire was lit, and we all circled around it throwing coconuts into the leaping flames. This is to mark the defeat of the demoness Holika.
The following day colors were splashed across all Asian community members met each other, playfully squirting gulal and enjoying a laughing forgetting all their problems.
This was a prime example of building bridges between various Asian religions. It was social cohesion in living color!
Such events built long-lasting friendships many of which have lasted to this day.
One incident comes to mind when as a shy nine-year-old, dressed in a white shirt splashed with splodges of dark red color caught the attention of a local Tanzanian African, who worked as a telephone exchange operator at the Post Office. His first reaction in jest was when asked me in Kiswahili language: “How many people have you murdered today?”
He always reminded me of his jokey question several years down the line whenever I phoned the old system manual telephone exchange at a time when you had to be asked to put through to a telephone number in the town.
Celebrations in Dar es Salaam, the economic capital of Tanzania, the Indian Ocean city in the east, the home of 100,000 Hindus at one time, were even more vibrant.
That was also the case with celebrations across the border in Nairobi, Kenya and Kampala, Uganda where there were some 200,000 Hindus at one time but who migrated to the UK and India since then.
Holi is celebrated with full energy by the majority of more than half a million Hindus in South Africa.
Members of other religions in this Rainbow Nation join in this fun-filled day. Durban is a crowd-puller during the Holy festival.
London, where I live these days, is the epicenter of all Hindu festivals, including Holi which is celebrated in the United Kingdom by the nearly one million Hindu community.
The annual Holi Festival of Colors held in London is now a major attraction not only for the Hindus but also the white British population who turn up in significant numbers to enjoy the fun and frolic of this colorful event.
There is a strong Hindu community settled in Wembley, Southall, Tooting suburbs of London and further afield in Leicester in the British Midlands. Interestingly, the Holi festival was held in Germany in 2011 by Hindus and other communities.
Since then, the concept has since captivated crowds from all backgrounds in Munich, Hannover and further afield in New York, Peru, Mexico, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Tokyo, and Singapore splashing colors and enjoying music and dance.
This is one day of the year when all courtesies take a backseat and whoever comes in the path of revelers is splashed with color.