About this time of the year most Indians traditionally let their hair down and indulge in throwing bright colored powders and scented water at one another as they celebrate Holi, the festival heralding the onset of spring.
Until some years ago in the United States, only the Indian-Americans were seen celebrating the festival at their homes, or gathering in small groups in neighborhood parks, flinging ‘gulal’ or colored powders at each other and chanting ‘holi hai’. Amused non-Indian bystanders would look at the folks smeared with colors from head to toe, not understanding the religious significance of the festival, but enjoying perhaps the riot of colors and the warm spring weather after the long winter.
With the passage of time Americans spectators’ role has changed into that of participants as more and more non-Indians take part in the Festival of Color. In places like New York, New Jersey, California, Las Vegas, Utah and Nevada, Americans are seen alongside Indians taking part in the festival of color.
This is more visible on university campuses like Stanford, Columbia and Rutgers, where Indian students clubs organize Holi every year, attracting scores of people who are not Indians, or Hindus.
Although Holi is a religious festival at its core and, according to one school of thought, is associated with the love between Radha and Lord Krishna, even in India the religious significance of the festival has seemingly taken a back seat in most parts of the country and is observed more like a cultural jamboree.
In the U.S, most Americans see Holi more as a cultural celebration like the St Patrick’s Day rather than a Hindu religious event.
Nonetheless, Americans, who arguably love to latch on to other’s cultures and turn them into their own, have adopted Holi in their own way without being aware of its religious significance much like non-Christians celebrating Christmas without being aware of its history.
“Using Rock and Roll as the ultimate example of “cultural borrowing”, young White Americans took African-American music and ran away with it. Young White Americans are taking Holi and making their own as well,” one woman wrote in a blog on Free Verse Photography.
Holi is also a time for Hindus to relax social codes when barriers between rich and poor, men and women, young and old are somewhat broken down by the festival’s bright colors and most Americans see Holi as a joyous occasion when love can by spread through colored powder.
Caru Das Adhikary, president and founder of the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah, which holds the annual Holi festival, the largest within the United States, somewhat agreed with the blogger. “When we started the Holi festival here in Utah some 20 years ago, I thought how to tweak it and get it packaged it in such a way that it would not only be attractive to Indians, but attractive to the people of American and to people all over the Western world as well,” Adhikary, whose first name was Chris before embracing the order in India way back in 1969, told News India Times.
He said he did a couple of things to repackage the festival. First, he invited all people to gather en masse on the 15-acre temple property where Sanskrit mantras, having the names of gods and goddesses like Rama, Krishna and Govinda were chanted. “But unlike in India, these mantras were set on western music like reggae, hip-hop, rap and rock to make them appealing to the western audience, so the young people feel comfortable with the music. Lastly, we introduced what we call the throw which is that on the top of every hour, we all countdown from ten to Krishna – we never go to zero because Krishna means wealth, strength, beauty, fame, power, knowledge and energy – and then throw all the colors on all people near and around,” he said.
“Those three innovations seemed to do the trick in the U.S. with more and more non-Indians joining the Holy celebrations every year,” he said, adding that it is impossible to feel unhappy at the Festival of Colors as it gives the message of life, reunion, and friendship and equality.
Little wonder, thousands of people join the festival every year at the temple foreground, including Indian-Americans.
Adhikary said that it had always had good participation of Indian-Americans. “But when westerners started flowing in like a river, the people from India became less visible. “But we still have several hundreds of Indian Americans, if not thousands, along with 50,000 Americans who gather at the temple from Spanish Fork and other neighboring cities like Springville and Provo for the two- day festival. This, in fact, is the largest Holy festival in the United States,” Adhikari said.
To a question, he said he believes that the festival appeals to Americans because in essence there is similarity between the messages of Lord Jesus Christ and Lord Krishna. “In the western culture, Lord Jesus Christ gave two commandments— love God with all your soul, all your heart and your entire mind, and said love your neighbor like you love yourself. Lord Krishna observed the Holi festival as a way of increasing love between himself and his devotees. So, originally it’s about divine love between Radha and Krishna,” he said.
“Thus for everybody, not just Indians, Holi has universal appeal because it directly addresses the ‘atma’ and the purpose for which the ‘atma’ is created,’ he said. Adhikari also feels that the spring itself being a symbol for transformation and love, Holy appeals to Indian and Americans as well.
Whether in future Holi could be celebrated as a major spring festival or not, elected representatives in Washington have welcomed the celebration of Holi by Indian Americans and others. Congressman Joseph Crowley (NY-14), who is Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus and Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans, noted last year that
The festival of Holi is a time for communities to come together after the long winter months and cheer the coming of spring in a grand celebration of peace, friendship, and harmony and wished happy Holi to all those celebrating the joyous festival.
“As we shake off winter’s chill and welcome the renewal of spring, the festival of colors provides an opportunity to rekindle old friendships and forgive past mistakes,” noted Congresswoman Judy Chu (CA-27), chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.
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