On 22^nd of March 2019, FSL-India Kundapur organised a Cultural Event for 2 LTV volunteers. Every month, we organise a cultural event for our regular volunteers and we take them to any cultural and historical places which are located in and around Kundapur. This month, the Cultural Event revolved around the Holi Festival, also known as the Festival of Colours.

According to Hindu mythology, Holi is based on a legend about the Asura (Demon) King Hiranyakashipu. Hiranyakashipu had a son, Prahlad, who was the greatest devotee of Lord Vishnu. Due to this, Hiranyakashipu wanted to kill his son, so he took his sister, Holika into his confidence. She had a magic robe which had the power to save the wearer from burning in fire. Hiranyakashipu ordered his sister to sit on a burning fire along with Prahlad. He thought that his sister would not be harmed by the fire because of the magic robe and Prahlad would be burnt to death. But the result was the opposite to what the evil demon king planned.

As is believed, no one can harm the person who has God as his Saviour. Thus, Prahlad came out of the burning fire safely and Holika was burnt to death. On the first day, an effigy of Holika is burnt at night, then people play with the ashes and the second day is celebrated with joyful colours to mark the victory of virtue and goodness over evil. The 5th day, Rang Panchami, marks the closing day of the Holi festival.

Holi is one of the major festivals of the Hindu people. It is celebrated in South Asian countries, especially in India and Nepal. People pour colored water on each other and cook many types of sweets and other special dishes. Holi is celebrated in the spring season because it signifies the welcoming of Spring. Hindus believe that Spring is full of colours, so they throw coloured water on each other. In Kundapur’s Karvikeri community, the people celebrate Holi festival very grandly, as a long term tradition.

In the morning, we started our travel from the meeting point to the cultural event place, after explaining about the activities to the volunteers. First, we visited the Mahakali temple nearby and we attended the pooja ceremony before distributing the colours. It was an interesting ceremony and over 100 pilgrims attended the program. The Priest did the final ‘arathi’ to the goddess and applied the colour to the goddess’ idol. So, after all the people distributed the colours, they had a great time applying the different colours to all the people of the community. Different Holi groups exchanged their Holi wishes with our volunteers.

Next, we started to walk towards Melkeri, which was the place where the procession of Holi begins. Afterwards, our volunteers joined the women’s Holi group at Melkeri, which shared the tradition of Holi festival with the volunteers. The women’s group gave them a uniform and took many group pictures. This was followed by lunch, after which they went to a different area of Karvikeri and shared the colors with each other. So, finally there was a big procession of over 5000 people who joined the procession and it went along Kundapur town accompanied with different tabla, traditional music and DJ music. Our volunteers also joined the procession and they enjoyed themselves a lot. Finally, we couldn’t recognise each other because of the various colors on our faces. All the volunteers said it was a worthwhile program from FSL-India, as the volunteers were looking forward to see a new cultural experience. They said they enjoyed the function and learned a lot about Indian traditions.

Feedback:

Orane, France: I didn’t know Holi was celebrated in Kundapur, but I am really grateful that I had the chance to experience this festival here. It is very famous around the world and in movies and it was amazing to be part of it and to celebrate it in this community. Everyone was happy, smiling, enjoying, dancing and putting colours on each other. I really had a great time during the festival. Thank you for this once-in-a-lifetime experience!

Hanan, Sweden: Yesterday’s Holi celebration was an amazing experience and very surprising. I have never celebrated Holi and it was beyond my expectations. I have only seen Holi in Indian movies and I always thought that it would be very cool to be a part of that. Now, I know what it’s like to be part of that celebration. Just throwing colours at each other is really a joyful thing to do, but the most amazing part of this celebration was to see everyone so happy while doing it. That was really an amusing experience, and also the dancing was really amazing and crazy at the same time. So many people gathered to celebrate together, amazing! I didn’t think that Holi was celebrated a lot in Kundapur. However I am glad that I stayed in Kundapur for celebrating Holi because I got to know the community, and got to be a part of it. So thank you for this experience, I am very grateful!