By Jean H Charles:

In the Hindu (Caribbean) cultural tradition, the day and the following week that follows the full moon in March is dedicated to the Holi or Phagwah celebration. I am of Christian religion but I believe people of all faith can learn and benefit from this cultural tradition.

It is true that the Lent period (a version of the Phagway) leading to the renewal of Easter Day is the province of the Christians. In the age when religion is often relegated to the discretionary drawer, a strong cultural tradition akin to the Hindu Phagwah should be the lot of everyone.

Having spent a considerable time recently travelling in and reflecting upon my homeland Haiti, I came to the conclusion that this nation is the motherland of the seven cardinal sins. Lust, anger, greed, egoism, jealousy, vanity, envy, gluttony occupy personal and collective motivation. Sixty years of bad governance through dictatorial, military, illiberal democracy have left a toll on the ethos of the nation where the moral compass has been thrown into the garbage pile.

Crossing the pond into the other islands of the Caribbean, the spirit is not better. The devastation caused by the cable TV pumped directly from the United States into the homes of each island in the Caribbean offers nonstop gratification that only lust, gluttony, greed, envy can try to satisfy. (Chris Brown new antics and new album and Rhianna in the background making the latest waves all over the world.)

A lesson into the mythology of Phagwah 101 is necessary. Lord Vishnu, apparently the Siamese brother of our (Christian) Lord, was pleased by the sacrifice and the penance exhibited by Hiranyakashipu, the king of the demons. He promised he will give to Hiranyakashipu whatever he wishes for. His demand: “that my death not be caused by man or beast with a weapon or without a weapon during day or night, indoors or outdoors, on earth or in the sky,” was granted. He became arrogant and vain and ordered that all people stopped honoring Lord Vishnu to divert their attention and prayer only to him.

But his son, Prahlada, would not give in to this sacrilege. He went through a series of injuries that only Job in the Old Testament would recognize. He was poisoned, trampled by elephants, left with poisonous snakes, and last put in a pit of fire to be consumed along with his sister Holika.

Holika was completely burned, while Prhalada remained safe and got out of the bonfire with no harm.

The morale of the story is the ultimate victory of good over evil, virtue over vices. During forty days before the festival, the head of the family invites all the members to fast, pray, and do penance for all the greed, lust, envy they have sinned about during the rest of the year.

Holi is a celebration for children, masking their faces with colors; it is the beginning of spring, the joy of the earth coming back with the bounty of future harvest.

Holi brings us back to the time when simple joy was contagious, when society was cleansing itself through the natural process of cultural values and traditions where good deeds were the norm, evildoers were frowned upon and devotion was the mother of motivation not ambition.

May the children of the world be given the gift of Holi whatever their faith or religion, they will learn that virtue shall win over vices and will we will certainly have a better world!

March 26, 2011

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