Remembering Holi (Pagwah Day)

As a child, I always looked forward to Holi or Pagwah day. This Hindu celebration of spring was a national holiday on the South American country where I grew up. People of all ages, races, cultures, and economic status participated.

To begin with, school was closed and a general sense of festivity and good will towards friends, neighbors, and strangers abounded.

We enjoyed dousing each other with colored water and talcum  powder, eating good food prepared by village cooks in large cauldron pots, drinking (mostly rum), singing Hindi  folk songs, and dancing to bhangra music and tassa drums lasting throughout the day and late into the night.

When I think of the spring I fondly remember of festival of Holi.

-OB