By Acharya S.P.Dwivedi
Holi in an ancient popular Hindu festival which is celebrated all over the world where the people of Indian diaspora are dwelling. It is performed by Jain, Sikh, Newar Budhist and other people of India. It is mentioned in Puranas, by poet Kalidas of 4th century and in drama Ratnavali of 7th century.
Holi begins with Holika-Dahan/ bonfire which is based on mythology as victory of good over evil; and in the next morningon the full-moon of Phalgun (Feb- March) people throw colored water and colored powder/gulal on one another. Holi is celebrated as “Festival of Love”, “Festival of Color” and “Festival of Spring”. People of all caste, gender, age and status freely take part and all barriers are broken in Holi.
Hindi Literary Society, Consulate General of India and Global Hindu Foundation jointly celebrated the Holi function on March 28,2021 with exciting songs and dances. The celebration was focused also as the launching of “Amrit Mahotsava”, the 75 years (August15,2021) of independence of India. Acharya Dwivedi, in his welcoming address, expressed greetings of Holi, and emphasized on the sacrifices of innumerable “freedom fighter”of India’s revolution. Consul General of India Mr. Manish conveyed greetings on Holi. He informed that there will be different programs for 75 weeks related with Amrit Mahotsava in future.
Deepa Sharma with Harish Masand carried the invaluable responsibility of organizing and conducting the function. The function was begun with the Lord Ganesha’s prayer (Shlokas) by young artists Dhevan and Riya De Almeida of Toronto. Holi geet (Fagva) were recited by Charu Arya, Kanti Dwivedi, JyotikaJasuja, Acharya Dwivedi; poems were recited by Archana Harit, Hari Varshney, Pushplata Sharma, Reshma Mishra, Bina Jain, Shikha Porewal, Ashmita Lawrence, Rupinder Khera; and dances were performed by Puja Mishra, Angel Gautam, Sanvi Gupta &Samira Gupta, Preeti Grover &Shreya Grover; and group dance was performed by Deepa Sharma, Sheetal Gautam &Saroj Kumar.
Program included: (A)An artistic presentation by Geeta Mishra. (B)Recipe of Holi drink,“Thandai” and Rangoli was presented by Renu Pant and Sarika Sharma. (C)Description of Holi was given by Madhu Varshney. President- Harish Masand, concluded the program bygiving thanks to artists and participants.
