What is Phagwa in Trinidad and Tobago?
Phagwa or Holi is a religious festival celebrated by the Hindu community in March of each year. But as with all observances in our multi-ethnic, multi-religious country, the wider community, Phagwa is celebrated by the wider population.
What is the significance of Phagwa?
Phagwa is also known as the Festival of Colour in which people dance to special songs known as chowtals and squirt abeer and smear gulal on each other in merriment. There is also a solemn religious significance. It marks the destruction of evil in the embodiment of Holika and the triumph of the forces of good.
What is the difference between Holi and Phagwa?
Holi is a national holiday in Suriname. It is called Phagwa festival, and is celebrated to mark the beginning of spring and Hindu mythology. In Suriname, Holi Phagwa is a festival of colour.
How Phagwa is celebrated in the Caribbean?
Most Trinidadians make do with plastic bottles. Phagwa is also celebrated with vigorous drumming and singing. Choral groups perform chowtals — sometimes bawdy, spirited spring songs in Hindi — accompanied by harmonium and drums.
Why is Holi called Phagwah?
It is called Phagwah because it originated in the month of Phagoon in the Hindu calendar. It is widely known as a Spring Festival with the joyous celebration of spring, rebirth and fertility, and indeed it is dated around spring time. These celebrations originated in agriculture.
Who celebrates Phagwah?
HinduismHoli / Featured in religions
Who is Holika brother?
Hiranyakashipu
Holi festival myth …the burning of the demoness Holika (or Holi), who was enlisted by her brother, Hiranyakashipu, in his attempt to kill his son Prahlada because of the latter’s unshakable devotion to Vishnu.
Why are there colours in Holi?
In ancient times, when people started playing Holi, the colours used by them were made from plants like Neem, Haldi, Bilva, Palash (etc). The playful pouring and throwing of color powders made from these natural sources has a healing effect on the human body.
Why do we play colours in Holi?
But how did colors become part of Holi? This dates back to the period of Lord Krishna (reincarnation of Lord Vishnu). It is believed that Lord Krishna used to celebrate holi with colors and hence popularized the same. He used to play holi with his friends at Vrindavan and Gokul.
Which god is worshipped on Holi?
What is the story of Holi? Holi also celebrates the Hindu god Krishna and the legend of Holika and Prahlad.
Was Holika a demon?
Holika (Sanskrit: होलिका), sometimes also known as Simhika, was a demoness in scriptures. She was the sister of King Hiranyakashipu and the aunt of Prahlad. The story of Holika Dahan (Holika’s death) signifies the triumph of righteousness over non-righteousness.
Who was Holika husband?
Viprachitti
Viprachitti was the husband of Prahlad’s aunt Holika, also known as Simhika. Prahlad’s father’s (Hiranyakashipu) sister, was married to the King of Kamrup, Viprachitti.
What is the Phagwa festival in Trinidad?
In Trinidad on the official day of the Phagwa observance, usually a Sunday, the festival explodes with colour like the flowering pink poui on the hillsides, in villages all over the island. No one who ventures near any of the celebration centres escapes without a splash of colour or a thorough soaking.
What is Phagwa or Holi?
Phagwa, or Holi, in Trinidad usually follows on the heels of Carnival. It is a festival of Hindu origin brought by the Indian indentured workers. Like Carnival, it is a communal joyous transformation in which participants release inhibitions — Phagwa has been called the “Indian Carnival.”
How is Phagwa celebrated in Guyana?
In Guyana, buckets of water or mud are hurled at each other in the street. In Trinidad on the official day of the Phagwa observance, usually a Sunday, the festival explodes with colour like the flowering pink poui on the hillsides, in villages all over the island.
What is Phagwa and why is it important?
As a spring festival, Phagwa is associated with ideas of rebirth, renewal, reconciliation, and the blossoming of love. But for the casual observer, and even the devout, it is primarily a time of music and celebration.