Holi: A Hindu Celebration of Colors

via GulfNews

The Indian Hindu population in Dubai is huge… over 50% of the population by some estimates. So many of the Hindu religious/cultural celebrations are very prominent here. In the past several days the celebration of Holi has happened (pic is actually from Mumbai, India though the scenes here are very similar). During the celebration, colored powders mixed with water are thrown at one another for fun. Our offices are near some University campuses and usually I’ll see students smeared with a rainbow of colors and chasing one another around the campus with bags of the powder.

But of greater interest to me is the religious origin of the holiday which many aren’t able to articulate. The story is about Hiranyakashipu the king of the demons demanding that his son Prahlad worship him instead of Vishnu. Prahlad refuses and so the Demon king makes various attempts to murder his son in anger. He fails repeatedly and finally orders his son to sit on the lap of his sister Holika as he lights a bonfire under them. Holika has a magic shawl which protects her from fire. But as the fire grows the Prahlad prays to Vishnu to save him and the shawl leaps from Holika to him leaving her to burn to death. Thus, the festival is called the “lighting of Holika”.

As in many multicultural settings, followers of other religions have begun to adopt the festival if not it’s religious roots. Many Sikhs celebrate this and you’ll find many nominal Christians joining in the fun as well.

Do you think followers of other religions should celebrate each others’ holidays if they live in community with each other? How should we handle this in the context of inter-religious friendship?