Spring is celebrated throughout the world
in many form of festivities. In Indian culture, as the vernal equinox marks the
beginning of spring, people ignite the bonfires before the color war turns as
revels.
In welcoming spring, The Indian Embassy in
association with PT. Jaya Ancol, conducting an event, named “Colors of India”.
The two-day festival represents the array of Indian cultural events completed
by several attractive frolics from the artits trained by the Jawaharlal Nehru
Indian Cultural Centre (JNICC). The night was filled with such powerful beats
fusing with trembling motions of the Indian dancers.
The event was officially launced by the
Indian Ambassador to Indonesia, ASEAN, and Timor Leste, on Friday March 21,
while the event itself held for two nights.
First night was opened with the photo
exhibition showing the strong bilateral relationship between the two countries,
themed at “Six Decades of India and Indonesia Relationship”. The Indian
Ambassador to Indonesia, ASEAN, and Timor Leste, Gurjit Singh made a remarks
during the press conference aiming at enhancing the people-to-people contacts,
targetting young Indonesians.
The exhibition took place at the North Art
Space, Pasar Seni [Night Art Market] Ancol, Jakarta, capturing India-Indonesia
relationship which dates back from time immemorial referring to both countries’
vibrant decades.
Besides the bilateral documentations, the
exhibition was also depicting the illustrious bollywood movie industry by
organizing a movie screening. While the second day filled with smearing and
splashing color ritual.
“The colored powder are part of the
celebration in welcoming spring, to show the colors of nature,” Indian
Ambassador to Indonesia, ASEAN, and Timor Leste, Gurjit Singh told me on Friday right before the Grand Opening of the event.
Singh exuberantly explained that Holi
festival was celebrated on the different day depending on the lunar calender,
thereby the date changed every year.
On the day of holi festival, the entire
sights filled with gulal and abeer that symbolize the hues of spring. Gulal is
made of dyed flour, while abeer is the glittery paper that added into gulal to
create lustrous shades to the color battle.
Several essential colors in holi
tradition, represent different philosopical meanings. Red explains chastity,
green is interpreted as vitality and energy. While composure and calmness is
expressed through blue, and yellow shows piety.
These days, after holi festival is widely
celebrated, the materials of gulal and abeer are sometimes dangerous. The colors
that was extracted from natural coloring substances, such as flowers is now
subtituted by the harmful chemical coloring matters. In fact, Indian enviornmental
groups is striving to disseminate the awareness of using more natural way in
commemorating holi.
“[Toxic chemicals that contained in gulal]
can cause health problems, so we are applying with more organic colors, and
less chemical colors. It is very eco-friendly,” Singh emphasized.
Besides celebrating holi festival with
colors, he further said that in India people usually gather in a Summer Camp.
“It is a big festival when we have a lot of fun a lot of jokes. So it is a big
day we celebrate,” Singh added.
What
lies beneath the rites
Too many historical sources, and different
chimerical stories lies beneath the ancient Hindu religious festival. It is
said that holi was initially started by igniting holika, known as the bonfire,
was derived by the story of the legend of Holika and Prahlad.
It is believed, a demon king,
Hiranyakashyap commanded everybody to worship him. On the contrary, his own
son, Prahlad became an obidient devotee of Lord Naarayana. Prahlad was
repetantly saved by the Lord Vishnu from trial for premeditated murder by his
own father. After all such, Hiranyakashyap asked his sister that blessed with
boon, Holika to kill Prahlad by carrying him into flaming fire. Holika didn’t
realize that even she could escape from fire unscathed using her boon, she only
could do that all alone.
While Holika was being razed by fire,
Prahlad kept praying in the name of Lord Naarayana. His worship as an obidient
devotee made his life saved. Thereby, ‘Holi’ brought from Holika which marks
the triumph of good over evil.
Aside from the story of Holika, the colorful
downpour and throwing hues ritual also has its own story. It was when the
little Krishna –the eighth incarnation of Lord Vishnu in Hinduism- felt so
jealous due to his dark complexion compared to his lover, Radha. While Krishna
felt so dark and Radha was so fair. Krishna intended to put a prank on Radha
using color, until both of them are looked alike. By that story, throwing
colors during the festival can be seen as the expression of love.
In the famous Indian culture, devotion
contributes huge role. Not only shown in its festival, but also applicated in
other forms such as science that explains the enormously popular yoga.
“Yoga is the science of health and
healing,” said Ravi Dixit, an experienced yoga guru. It is believed that Yoga,
was nothing but life style. Ravi Dixit explained during a Yoga consultation
session at the Night Art Market, that Yoga meant enjoying life in a balanced
version.
He said that yoga was a package of science
when body, mind, and emotion in total coordination. “Yoga takes care of your
emotion, mind, andbody, and remember Yoga has nothing to do with any religion,”
he added.
Yoga was formulated under the social and
personal principles called “ashtanga” or “eight limbs of yoga”, concerning
ethical and moral conduct. There are Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama,
Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samdhi.
“In short, Yoga means discipline,
determination, and devotion as shown in the spirit of holi festival,” said Ravi
Dixit.
A woman gets inked. Mehndi or Henna in Indian tradition is applied during
special Hindu weddings and Hindu festivals used for women’s palm.
