Blissful Phagwah! Indo-Caribbean neighborhood celebrates Competition of Colours
This month, many in South Florida’s Indo-Caribbean neighborhood celebrated Phagwah. Phagwah or Holi, as it’s generally referred to as, is an annual Hindu Competition of Colours commemorating the arrival of Spring.
This pageant was dropped at locations like Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, and Jamaica by East Indians who first got here to the Caribbean nearly 200 years in the past. The celebration contains throwing coloured water and powders on each other, with every shade carrying a particular that means. Crimson, for instance, symbolizes love and fertility, and inexperienced symbolizes new beginnings.
This 12 months the pageant was formally on March 8, however celebrations have been held all through the month of March. In response to Indo-Caribbean neighborhood member Hazel Maragh, who’s a distinguished advertising and marketing and neighborhood guide for GraceKennedy Remittance Companies,
“The Indo-Caribbean neighborhood in South Florida really had six Pagwah occasions that had been placed on by the completely different Hindu temples.”
Two of these South Florida-based Phagwah occasions included one on March 12 referred to as Holi within the Park, which was held in Loxahatchee Grove by the Guyanese and Palm Seashore Hindu communities. Then, on March 18 in Cooper Metropolis, the Jamaican Indo-Caribbean neighborhood, with Rohan Tolan and Apache Promotions as hosts, held Phagwah 2023.
“We celebrated Phagwah once we had been younger rising up in Jamaica,” Maragh explains. “After we migrated to the USA we saved the custom alive, and we’ve been doing it for 25 years. It brings household and pals collectively, however we additionally accumulate donations to assist care for much less lucky individuals in our neighborhood.”
Maragh says that, as a result of pandemic, the pageant was compelled to interrupt for 3 years, however the neighborhood is elated to return to the joyous annual custom. “We had been so blissful to do it once more,” she beams.
Within the Caribbean, Phagwah is usually noticed after Carnival.