The past four days have been an amazing experience and by the far the best in Guyana. It was the Hindu festival of Phagwah also known as Holi. My friends who I arrived with also came down for the weekend so it was fantastic to see them.
Phagwah (from Wikipedia) is celebrated by people throwing coloured powder and coloured water at each other. Bonfires are lit the on the eve of the festival, also known as Holika Dahan (burning of Holika) or Chhoti Holi (little Holi). The bonfires are lit in memory of the miraculous escape that young Prahlad accomplished when Demoness Holika, sister of Hiranyakashipu, carried him into the fire. Holika was burnt but Prahlad, a staunch devotee of god Vishnu, escaped without any injuries due to his unshakable devotion.
The celebrations started on Friday afternoon where most schools had their own programme. We went to watch at one school. The children performed poems, dances, songs and also the story of Phagwah was also told. Then the fun started – powder and water throwing! I thought this may take place outside – but no inside the classroom! You are supposed to wipe the powder on someone else’s face and say “Happy Phagwag” but as you can imagine with 10 year olds, it ended up as a big water and powder fight! It was complete chaos and lots of fun – everyone got covered including the teachers. Afterwards we ate traditional food which the children’s parents had prepared. It was a really fun afternoon!
Then Saturday my friends arrived – I hadn’t seen them for over 3 weeks and it was so good to catch up! We visited a local market and had powder put on our faces there!
In the evening we went to a local Mandir (Hindu Temple). We were just going to watch the bonfire (Holica) – we thought we would go and watch it from the road. Our taxi driver told us we could into the Mandir and see the temple. We arrived for the beginning of the service and were invited to join in. The temple was beautiful and full of statues of different Gods. There was some singing in Hindi and then a sermon was given on humility. At the end the women got up and danced and we were invited to join in – we had more powder put on us! We were made to feel very welcome. Then the men went outside and lit the bonfire – the women were not allowed outside until it was lit. Once it was, we went outside and watched it - it took a while to take, as it was so damp from all the rain we have had, but with a lot of petrol it finally went up. It was made out of pieces bamboo and was around 20m high. After about 15 minutes it fell over and then the party started! They had some amazing drummers and people started to dance. Then people started to throw water over everyone (including us) they put ice in the water to make you scream when it went down your back! We spent around 2 hours dancing and getting wet. There all kinds of ages and we were made to feel so welcome – an amazing night.
On Sunday the day of Phagwah we went to a village on the Canje river – we travelled there in a car all 6 of us plus the driver! – This was an East Indian community and a little of the beaten track. We had been invited there by one of the teachers at a school I had visited. Banmattie and her family made us so welcome. When we arrived we had another feast of traditional food including sweet meats, savoury and sweet dough balls, channa, roti. After we went out with her husband and children and listened to hear where the drums were coming from. We found them and joined a crowd of people walking around the streets of the village. You are supposed to wipe the ash from the bonfire on your face and then throw water to wash it off. Everywhere we went people threw water at you (again with ice!). We would pass someone’s house and they would invite us into the yard and we offer us food and drinks (including alcoholic ones). We went and visited the bonfire and smeared ash on ourselves. There was a truck driving around with big buckets of water throwing it over people. We met so many people – and as seems to be the case, people knew who I was and could refer to events from a couple of weeks ago such as what I bought in a shop! We went and swam in the ditch – one part was sandy and fast flowing water so we were happy to swim in it – you swim in your clothes in Guyana! We went back to the house and were given more food of Dhal puri and potato curry (not allowed to eat meat today – supposed to be the same with alcohol!) I shared with the teacher photos of the school were I use to work and we discussed teaching.
We got changed into our white t-shirts and immediately got squirted with water mixed with dye. We walked down the street and went and greeted the family’s neighbours – wiping different coloured powder on their faces and wishing them a Happy Phagwah and then hugging. Often at each place we were offered food and drink. We would then meet a little group of children or adults and have a bit of a water/powder fight. We progressively got more and more colourful as the afternoon went on. Again everyone from the community joined in from little babies to people in their 70s – I even saw a few dogs who had been Phagwah-ed! We decided to go for another swim in the ditch (which was the size of a river – but it is one of the ditches dug around the streets – they varied from ½ meter deep to a couple of meters) as we were so messy!
The family were wonderful to us, making us so welcome. Their kindness was very humbling – they have invited us back to celebrate other events with them. When we drove out so many people were waving at us – people who we had only met for a few hours that day and we left with many invites to come and visit again.
Phagwah is the festival of colours and it certainly was that!
When we returned home we had a lot of washing to do – all our skin is dyed in strange places – I have patches of blue and green all over my body! I again have hair full of glitter and think it will take another three weeks to remove. I woke up on Monday with all my face swollen – I think I had had an allergic reaction to the dye, i look very funny!
A fantastic weekend, one that I will remember for ever – there are a lot of photos but I couldn’t choose between them!
Shelley xx
