ON Friday, March 18, Phagwah or Holi will be celebrated countrywide.  It is the most ancient holy day in Guyana’s holiday calendar, since its origins could be traced to over 5,000 years ago.  It was introduced to Guyana by Indentured Immigrants from India in the 19th century. It quickly attracted celebrants of all races, religions and cultures, thus becoming one of the first integrative forces in Guyana’s plural society.

Over the 5,000 years of its existence, many varied traditions came to be attached to, or absorbed into it, but they all had a celebratory aspect and a moral and religious which proclaimed that truth and goodness will always triumph over evil and wickedness.  In Guyana, there are two main Holi or Phagwah traditions that are strongly maintained: the story of the defeat and death of the tyrant Hiranya Kasipu and the return of Lord Rama from his 14-year exile to his kingdom of Ayodhya.

In ancient India, there lived a great and powerful king named Hiranya Kasipu, who was a strong believer in God and who devoted himself to the Divine, practising the most severe austerities (tapasya).  God himself acknowledged Hiranya Kasipu’s great devotion and rewarded him with three boons of his choice.  The first boon granted was that Hiranya Kasipu could never die or be killed on the face of the earth;  the second was that he could never be killed or die at night nor day, and the third was that he could be killed by neither man nor animal.

When Hiranya Kasipu attained these great powers, his personality suddenly changed, and extreme arrogance and selfishness overtook him.  He declared he was immortal and was God himself and became a tyrant, oppressing his subjects.  He then declared that everyone must worship him as God on pain of death to themselves and families, and the temples had to remove the icons of God.  The people lived in fear until his young son Prahalad publicly declared that he believed in God and that his father was no God.  He incurred his father’s extreme hatred, and he decided to kill Prahalad.

He and his sister Holika, who was a witch with the power of fire never harming her, worked out a plan to kill Prahalad.   A large pyre was built and at nightfall, Holika took  Prahalad in her lap, sat on the pyre which was then set alight. The next morning when the pyre had burnt out, the citizens found Prahalad alive and well, but that Holika had been burnt to ash.  The king became demented with rage and went into the largest temple, shouting that he was God and if there was any other God, let that God come and meet him.  As he paced about in his rage, he struck one of the columns of the temple with his sword and out jumped a Man-Lion, Narsingha, who was an Outar or incarnation of Lord Vishnu.  Narsingha immediately attacked the king and they struggled for a long time until dusk had set in.  They fell on the temple’s steps, and Narsingha managed to catch Hiranya Kasipu by the throat, lifted him off the ground, and strangled him. The king was killed at dusk, which was neither night nor day;  he was throttled in midair off the earth, and his executioner was neither man nor animal.

The people broke into spontaneous jubilation, exchanged meals, spayed each other with coloured water, especially red, to symbolise the tyrant’s death and called their festival “Holi” to remember Holika’s death and Prahalad’s great faith in God, which saved his life.

The other Phagwah or Holi tradition is the commemoration of Lord Rama’s return from his 14-year exile.  The story is well known of King Dasrat of Ayodhya having three queens who bore him three sons, with Ram being the heir apparent and one of the queens, Bharat’s mother, scheming to have her son made king.  She was successful in having Ram exiled for 14 years into the wild forests, where survival was difficult.  But Bharat, who was the epitome of nobleness, integrity and honesty, found his mother’s action abhorrent.  He never sat on the throne but placed Ram’s sandals there and governed as regent for Ram.

While Ram was in exile, his wife Sita was kidnapped by Ravan, the demonic king of Lanka, and Ram, assisted by Hanuman, an incarnation of Lord Shiva, gathered an army, invaded Lanka, killed Ravan and rescued Sita. This part of Lord Rama’s life is recounted in many Ramayanas, even as far away from India in countries like Indonesia and Thailand.  In Guyana, the Ramayana used is written by Tulsidas and is one of the main texts used by Hindus in the Caribbean.

Phagwah is the festival that commemorates Ram’s return from exile which the citizens celebrated with great jubilation.  The city was illuminated with lamps and diyas. People exchanged sweetmeats, went to the temples to pray and sang the praises of Lord Rama in the streets.  Phagwah and Holi became fused in many ways as for example, all using abeer, the red water to throw on each other.  Since Lord Rama’s return occurred in Spring in the month of Phalgun, the festival adopted much of the joyous relief with which Spring Festivals everywhere are characterised.  In Guyana, we have retained the celebratory as well as the moral aspects of the festival and calling it “Phagwah” which is related to Phalgun reminds us of its Spring background.

Happy Phagwah!  Happy Holi!