happy holi

every day can be a festival for an individual soul; a festival of light (diwali), a festival of shadow, a festival of chiaroscuro (yes! of chiroscuro), a festival of mountains, a festival of trees, a festival of sky, a festival of boiled eggs, a festival of Jesus Christ emerging from the tomb, a festival of self-realisation, a festival of contemplation on the Divine Mystery of womanhood, a festival of the Universal Soul, vibrating in the deepest darkest corners of this endless empire of Reality.

holi is the hindu festival of colours

i knew that 12 year old Agman was extra specially enthusiastic when he shouted "hello, hello!" the first time he saw me on the street, walking out to my encampment in the woods.  the next day he and his brothers came to my encampment and told me formally to come to their family celebration of the holi festial.  

"you will come?  okay, i will meet you on the road at half past six" 

but    i don't have a watch... 

i know: i will meet you on the road when it gets dark, when the first stars come out.

 although that first evening there was a certain awkwardness, the ten sisters and ten brothers giving me an ovation when i arrived to stand around the family courtyard, searching for things to say, waiting for it to get dark to light the bonfire, the next day as soon as i appeared everyone hailed me, "Happy Holi!" and covered my face and hair affectionately with fingerfulls of multicoloured powders: red, yellow, orange, dark purple, vibrant rose - even green and blue.  everyone was dancing with great mirth and natural ease.  i felt relaxed at once and marveled at the sheer happiness which was being produced.  they had all decided to get together and be happy, and this they achieved with innocence and panache.  they were innocent holy revelers fully aware of the joy of living.  all the young sisters gave me couqettish glances and looked away timidly when they saw me admiring their dancing style - their hands joined in the centre dancing like dignified snakes while they all moved round in a circle.  the older men were full of youthful alegria and sneaked up behind unsuspecting family members to jump on them and smear their faces with more powder.  other family members pounced on the scrum and their pure sunny sky-blue happiness shone to all corners of the globe, probably.  later buckets of water were brought out and turned the powder into a dark paste, clinging to everyone's faces and clothes.  after a while we went out to visit several of the neighbours' houses.  on the street strangers going by on mopeds were hailed and smeared in the same spirit of felicity and fraternity.  at other people's homes we were welcomed with more happyholi colour-smearing and fried pastry sweets filled with a light coconut and grain filling.  i was always ushered toward a seat and plates of sweets and crisps and nuts were pushed in front of me, and twice i was offered 'hard drink' - indian military rum, slightly less than tasty and served in a plastic cup.  the majority of indians i have met are tee-totalers.   in india the action of drinking wine (all alcoholic drinks are called wine) has a general whiff of dissipation about it.  Sanjay, the uncle who spoke most english and who was most keen to engage with me, declined to drink, but told me that: "one hundred, two hundred millilitres of rum is okay, but when it gets to 700ml, then you go from a drinker to a drunkard!"

we talked along the road together and sanjay told me how happy he was that i could join in their holi celebrations.  i told him i was so happy to encounter such spontaneous happiness, and friendliness.  it brought to my mind the image of a fire.  say there are three logs.  the fire burns but when a fourth log is added the total fire is bigger, and each individual log also burns brighter.

i meant to compare us to logs on a fire burning with happiness!

Sanjay explained that in the past the fire symbolised a certain evil spirit whose destruction was celebrated the following morning by smearning the ashes on people's faces.  over the years, manufactured coloured powders have come to be used.  the many colours are a symbol of the human diversity in india.

"you are my brother" i was told,

"all of them are my brothers, not just in my family, but everyone.  in india there are many different religions but we are all have - he told me the word in hindi and i guessed - universal brotherhood.

and.....

not just in india, but in the whole world.  everyone is my brother and sister!

"this is a time for people to be together, and, if disagreement between people, today they are friends...",

 i was told in carefully remembered english.

is it like this in your country? what festivals do you celebrate?

i said:  "christmas is the biggest festival for us...a time to be with family

there is also easter, 

"when Jesus rose from the dead!" chipped in Agman, "we celebrate Christmas too"

Agmen and his brother given me a full explanation of the signification of the two shrines in their land - which was almost like a compound, where aunts and uncles and cousins and gradparents all lived together.  one shrine was dedicated to Nagaraja, the snake god, and the other to the god whose name i forget, who has the body of a man and the head of a leeon

"a lion?"

yes, and many other details of their attributes which i fail to retain in my memory, explicated in their basic grasp of english, amazing i thought how young and how naturally the children assimilate awareness of the hindu gods

sanjay