IT IS customary to write about festivals before they arrive. Today we shall depart from the custom of this column and write about Phagwah which was celebrated as a national holiday three days ago. We do so because Phagwah and its message has a perennial attraction and did not simply disappear on 21st March.

In fact, many people have still kept in the celebratory mood until today, much as Christmas celebrations seep over to Twelfth Night.
Phagwah, like Diwali, is a Guyanese festival which was brought here nearly two centuries ago by Indian indentured immigrants.

Since these immigrants were the main labour force in the Sugar Industry which was the largest employer in the colony, the sugar estates gave Phagwah as a holiday to their employees. Many shops also closed their doors and much business activity ceased on that day. The Banks and most Government offices remained open but there was little activity and they usually closed early. After National Independence, Phagwah was formally declared a public holiday.

Hindu festivals are always both moral and religious as well as celebratory. These festivals are very ancient, and over the millennia of their existence, many traditions become attached to them. In Guyana, the two main traditions which are attached to Phagwah are that of its being a Spring Festival and that of the elimination of the tyrant ruler Hiranya Kasipu.

Spring Festivals in the Northern Hemisphere occur between March and April. In all Civilisations and cultures, these Spring Festivals tend to fall in close proximity to each other because they use the lunar calendar. For example, Nov Roz which usually falls close to Phagwah is celebrated in the Middle East and in countries touched by Persian contact. Or Easter itself, though it is the most important day in the Christian calendar also has ancient associations of being a Spring Festival as witnessed by its name after Easter, the ancient Teutonic goddess who was associated with Spring.

These Spring Festivals are usually times of feasting, singing, dancing, good fellowship, enemies reconciling, and filling the minds with a hope that the coming year would be one of prosperity and happiness. They epitomise rebirth and renewal. And Phagwah fits completely into this mould. Everyone entertains and shows good fellowship to everyone else. And of course, there is the sprinkling of red abeer and red abrack powder so everyone’s clothing is red, the celebratory colour.

The other strong Phagwah tradition in Guyana is the downfall and death of the tyrant Hiranya Kasipu. Hiranya Kasipu was a king in ancient India who performed extreme penances and austerities (Tapasya) until he was transformed into a good man in the eyes of the gods. The Divine as a reward offered him three wishes. His first wish was that he could not be killed or die anywhere on the earth; his second wish was that neither by night or day could he die; his third wish was that he could not be killed by either Man or Animal. All three wishes were granted.

The King now grasped he was immortal and he was suddenly transformed into a corrupt egotist. In this fall, arrogance, greed and love for power completely consumed him. He declared he was God and compelled his subjects to attend their temples and worship him on pain of death if they did not. He trampled over every right the citizens had and fear and terror took over the country.

Without warning, Hiranya Kasipu’s very young son, Prahalad refused to worship his father as God and declared that he would continue to worship God. The king immediately decided that Prahalad must die a painful death by being burnt alive. He, therefore, built a huge pyre and arranged with his sister Holika who could not be harmed by fire, to sit in the burning pyre and hold Prahalad in her lap until he was completely burnt to ashes. As soon as Holika and her nephew got on the pyre, it was set alight. Next morning when the citizens went to the pyre, they found that Holika was burnt to ashes and Prahalad, the playful child, quite unharmed since her power of being safe from the fire was transferred to Prahalad while he was sitting in her lap.

Hiranya Kasipu was furious with anger and went to the largest temple shouting that all must bow to him as God and as he strutted about the temple, in his rage, he slashed one of the columns with his sword and as he did so, a man-lion, Narasingha, jumped out of the column and attacked him. They began to fight and struggle until they reached the door and fell upon the steps. At that point, Narasingha seized the king by the neck, lifted him up and strangled him. Hiranya Kasipu was killed by a being who was neither Man nor Animal; he was killed at dusk which is neither day nor night, and he was strangled in midair and not on land. God had incarnated Himself as Narasingha to save humanity.

On the news of the death of the tyrant, the people burst out into wild rejoicing and festivities and everyone literally embraced everyone else in good fellowship and Phagwah, each year enacts the celebration of the demise of the tyrant.
In Guyana, Phagwah is celebrated with great verve and joy and people of every race, culture, class and religion happily join in its celebrations. It thus stands out as one of the great forces of integration and unity in Guyanese Society.