FADING COLOURS OF HOLI: CHANGING CULTURE OF FESTIVALS IN CHANGING TIMES: PRAMOD DIXIT MALAY

FADING COLOURS OF HOLI: CHANGING CULTURE OF FESTIVALS IN CHANGING TIMES: PRAMOD DIXIT MALAY

7-MARCH-ENG 9

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

ARA---------------------------Festivals are deeply connected to our daily lives. They are not only a medium of excitement, enthusiasm, and joy, but also convey messages about how our family and social life and work should be. Mutual friendship, brotherhood, and a sense of sharing joys and sorrows are important foundations for the development of society and the country; festivals strengthen this feeling. It is festivals that energize our social consciousness, cooperation, and brotherhood. Festivals advocate for a prosperous, happy, and harmonious world through the coexistence of human life, nature, and other living beings. They illustrate the intimate relationship with nature. The happiness, peace, and prosperity of individuals, families, and the nation are possible through mutual friendship, cooperation, and coordination, not fragmentation, inequality, or separation. Separations only fuel the fire that ignites the spirit of social unity and integrity. Only various festivals can liberate individuals and societies from regional, linguistic, gender, color, and caste-based discrimination and isolation, spreading the colors of affection, compassion, and love on the path of human dignity, companionship, and cooperation. In this sense, Holi, the festival of colors, certainly cultivates the multicolored flowers of love, harmony, and sweetness in public life, creating a harmonious society filled with equality and affection. The colors of Holi prevent life from becoming monotonous and one-sided. But is the generation, caught in the blind race of modernity, aware of the significance of these colors? Are their hearts filled with the sweet traditions, pleasant customs, and tender emotions that have always fostered the stream of social unity? Doesn't it seem that festivals are losing their dignity, reduced to mere formality, and their creativity has dulled? Whether the fading colors of Holi can provide support, liveliness, freshness, solace, and purity to the fabric of relationships woven with mutual love, sweetness, and friendship in folk life is worth pondering.

The festival of Holi is truly a festival of social harmony rooted in nature. It is a festival of demolishing the walls of discrimination erected in the courtyard of the human mind. It is a festival of welcoming the change of seasons and the harvest. It is a festival of being freed from the pressures of everyday life and immersed in the colors of joy. It is a festival of the joy of the victory of the truth of the people against the power. It is a festival of understanding the mystery of the union of God, devotee, and devotion. It is a festival of inspiration and flow that propels folk life forward from the individual to the path of collective well-being. It's a festival dedicated to preserving and passing on cultural heritage, song, music, and dance to the next generation. But the question is, are we truly capable of achieving this today? Doesn't it seem as if the noise of the DJ has dulled the sounds of the dhol, jheel, naqqara, cymbals, and manjira? The rhythm of phaag and rai has faded. The coolness of thandai has been drowned out by cold drinks. The natural, healthy colors of tesu, turmeric, and rose have been lost to chemical dyes. The enthusiasm of the loving revelers has now turned into rowdyism and vulgar behavior. Today, children and the elderly refrain from leaving their homes, fearing the unexpected arrival of paint, grease, and coal. Under the guise of colors, resentment can be vented and grudges can be vented. Wise people have confined themselves to their homes, while chaos, spectacle, and noise have taken over the streets. The loud, harsh sound of the DJ playing in the neighborhood is proving fatal for the elderly, children, and the sick. But who can stop them? This is a degradation of the spirit of a sacred and dignified festival like Holi. I believe that to preserve and maintain the dignity, decency, compassion, and ideals of festivals, conscious and responsible members of society must step forward and take initiatives to maintain the liveliness, decorum, and simplicity of festivals.

Scenes of Holi in my village during my childhood and youth spontaneously surface in my mind. Preparations for Holi would begin as soon as the month of Phalgun (the month of Phalgun) began. A collective Holika Dahan would take place at only one place in the village. The place would be cleaned and plastered with cow dung. On Basant Panchami, the auspicious occasion for Holi would be invoked, and a Palas branch would be planted. By Rang Ekadashi, a large amount of wood would be collected there. From early morning on Holi, balls (two-inch round, conical, cakes) made of cow dung would be gathered, woven with Munj thread, and piled up. The fire would be lit at the auspicious time in the evening or at night. On that occasion, the gathered community would exchange garlands of balls with each other, offering one or two garlands to the blazing Holika, performing five rounds around it. Half-ripe ears of gram, wheat, and barley would be tied to a long stick and roasted. Everyone would bring the Holi fire home in a bucket or pot and burn it in their neighborhoods and homes, singing Phaag. A paste of gram flour would be applied to the fire, symbolizing the renunciation of mental impurities and vices. The next day, colors would be played with. Puri, papad, gujiya, sev, khurma, etc. would be prepared in homes. In the evening, everyone would visit each other's homes, applying abir-gulal (coloured powder) and celebrating Holi. Phaag groups would sing Phaag songs late into the night in the neighborhoods. There was laughter, gentle banter, and the joy of dignified banter between brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law. Such scenes are seen in every village, but in this era of commercialism and modernity, these captivating scenes of Holi are on the verge of extinction, the colors of Holi's love are fading. Even neighbors are fulfilling the formality by sending Holi greetings on WhatsApp. We unite and make friends; this spirit is now disappearing. Let us take initiative together so that the dignity and original form of festivals is preserved and the gentle, sweet, loving behavior connected to our soil is preserved in us. This is the feeling that we should all avoid negative tendencies like impurity, ill-will, violence, unrest, anger, frustration, enmity etc. and let the positive tendencies of festivals like decency, courtesy, collectivism, cooperation and sensitivity, along with happiness, peace and prosperity, be in harmony in our lives