(RNS) — Anshul Virmani, a software consultant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, said his colleagues at work begin asking about Holi long before his children do. “They always ask, ‘When is the color festival? When are you guys gonna do the color-themed event?'”
Most Americans would be hard-pressed to name any Hindu holiday, but Holi, the vibrant festival that involves playfully throwing pink, purple, yellow and other brightly hued powders, has become far and away the most recognizable, if still mysterious, event for non-Hindus.
In the past decade, Holi celebrations across the U.S. have increased, often filling up an entire month’s weekends or two. While diaspora Hindus are finding new ways to celebrate Holi in their new environs, from family-friendly confetti throwing at public parks to neon-glow parties at the hottest nightclubs, many are also sharing the tradition with a wider audience.
“We’ve seen a lot of people who are not from South Asia coming to our events,” said Virmani, who is an event planner in his spare time. His company, AV Entertainment, will host six Holi events this year, including a popular Holi Cruise Party on the Hudson River, with indoor and outdoor decks and eco-friendly colored streamers. “They are really our cheerleaders, and they keep encouraging us, motivating us to do more events like these.”
Across the broad Hindu tradition, Holi celebrates the victory of good over evil, in some cases basing it on tales in the Bhagavata Purana in which Holika, a demon king’s sister, tries and fails to kill Lord Vishnu’s steadfast devotee Prahlada. Other Hindus trace Holi to stories of divine love between blue-skinned Lord Krishna and his consort Radha, to whom he mischievously applied colors to match his appearance.
In some traditions, Holi is a two-day feast. In others, the revelry goes on for more than a month. Hindu families light bonfires (to burn away evil, but also to destroy Holika), share foods and sweets with their neighbors and then chase each other through the streets with colored powders, shouting the Hindi greeting “Holi hai!” (It’s Holi!)
Prashant Kakad, center, performing as DJ Prashant during the Holi celebration in downtown Portland, Ore., April 21, 2024. (Courtesy photo)
Prashant Kakad remembers the immediate feeling of belonging it gave him as a new arrival at Cornell University in the early 2000s, to see even non-Hindu students celebrating Holi.
Now a musician and a DJ in Portland, Oregon, who spins records under the name DJ Prashant, Kakad will present his own version of the festival at an all-ages event at Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square at the end of March with help from a grant from the city. He is expecting almost 5,000 attendees, making it the largest event he will have ever put on. “It’s a Bollywood dream,” he said.
But Kakad said the spiritual essence of the holiday comes through, whether it is celebrated in a bar or in a temple parking lot. “It’s just so positively and strongly itself, and the act of applying colors to each other, and the color signifying the unity that we have, can bring so much joy and culture to us,” he said. (He recommends that event planners be able to read the room, however: He was once scolded for playing a selection from a slightly risque Bollywood soundtrack at a temple event.)
In Los Angeles, Mandeep Pabla is gearing up for Holi & the Beach, his second annual “new age” music festival on Redondo Beach, complete with a main stage, celebrity DJ appearances and a sponsorship from Sprite, the soda brand. Last year, the inaugural event sold out with more than 5,000 people, justifying leaving his corporate job to double down on producing events (as Radio5 Events).
“I want this to be the next Coachella for the Indian community,” said Pabla, who has held similar Holi celebrations events for more than a decade.
Colors are thrown in the air during a Holi festival in Spanish Fork, Utah. (Photo by Photo by John Thomas/Unsplash/Creative Commons)
But Pabla noted that almost 40% of festival attendees were non-Indian, thanks to his emphasis on giving the “old traditions a little LA remix,” he said. “I’m in the business of pushing culture out, and, you know, we need to have an identity. How can we all come together and say, ‘You know what, this is our night.'”
In short, Pabla believes, Holi is about friendship: The act of smearing colored powder on your “best friend, your ride-or-die,” doesn’t come around every day. “You can’t just go ahead and have a color party on a Friday night,” he said, but that makes Holi, an opportunity to show people how you feel about them, all the more important. “It is a festival of love,” he said. “I almost wanna say that should be the title of it.”
Some Hindus see Holi as more than a friendship festival. Jayanthi Moorthy, an artist and educator in New York, hopes second-generation American Hindus and their classmates come away from her events with a deeper understanding of Holi.
“I am not a big fan of how things are done, because I just feel everything, the throwing, the colors and the dance, it’s like consuming the culture,” said Moorthy. “And I think I’m done with only consuming Indian culture. I just feel there needs to be a point where people are also learning.”
Last weekend, Moorthy gathered children ages 3 to 5 with their parents for a Holi Art Studio. Parents outlined their children on a large sheet of paper, and kids were asked, ‘What are the colors you see outside of yourself, in New York City, or in the clothes you wear? And what are the colors you see inside when you close your eyes, in the things you eat or the things you like?’
“In the end, they were actually painting their self portraits, based on these color codes and questions we asked them,” said Moorthy. “I think that is a deeper sense of a Holi celebration.”
In early April, Moorthy’s organization, Aksara, will host its fourth “Holi on the Hudson” celebration on the Manhattan riverfront. Park restrictions prohibit colored powders, so families will “throw colors in the sky” by flying kites over the river. Highlighting the welcoming of spring, the event in the past has attracted about 100 families, more than half of them non-Indian. “They tell me, ‘This is the only Holi event that I can actually wear nice clothes!”