by Gulrukh Tausif

Created on: March 01, 2010   Last Updated: March 02, 2010

Hindu communities across Pakistan and elsewhere celebrates Holi, the festival of colors and radiance, to welcome the advent of the spring season. This ancient and vibrant festival also celebrates the triumph of ‘good’ over ‘evil’ in Hindu mythology. With a tradition dating back thousands of years, the carnival- like festival is celebrated with people smearing vibrant colored powders on each other's faces, spraying colored water on each other and eating and distributing sanctified sweets called prasads.

The Hindu community in Pakistan usually celebrates Holi a day after the full moon in the Hindu month of Phalguna. This usually falls in end February or early March. Much of the gaiety can be seen in Hindu neighborhoods and temples located in those cities of Pakistan which have a comparatively greater Hindu and Sikh population.

In the towns and villages of Tharparkar district in Sindh, Holi is celebrated with a lot of traditional zeal. Wearing colorful turbans, hundreds of Brahman and Maheshwari Hindus take to the streets dancing to the beats of drums. They march to Holi “thalho” in a procession where they set fire to a heap of straws to mark the beginning of the festival.  Special prayers are offered in temples for progress and solidarity of the country. People, especially women, girls and youth  wear very bright clothes and are seen distributing sweets among relatives, friends and general visitors.

In Rawalpindi, Holi’ is celebrated at mandars (Hindu temples) located at Lalkurti, Gracey Lane and Kabari Bazaar. In Lahore, the festivities mainly take place at the Krinshna Temple at Ravi Road. The largest Holi congregation in Pakistan is held at the Swami Narayan Temple in Karachi which hosts around 5,000 visitors.

A large number of Hindu families in Pakistan participate in this festival and observe their cultural and religious rituals. They start gathering different colored powders a few days prior to the occasion to use them in the ‘Holi’ festival. People spruce up their houses and prepare special delicacies like gujiyas, papri and dahi badas to serve to their guests. The Hindu temples are decorated with lights, “diyas” and flowers to celebrate the festival.  

On the day of Holi, people gather together and hug each other. The air reverberates with sounds of “Happy Holi” as people, both young and old, greet their friends and play with the colors, dance to Holi songs and generally have a good time. They usually wear white clothes on the occasion which are soon splashed in shades of fiery red, dark green, deep yellow and bold pink.

In temples, Hindu rituals such as “Aarti” of Hindu gods and goddesses are performed with praying and making offerings to them. A bonfire called Holika is also lit accompanied by chanting of “bhajans” (Hindu hymns). One of the special features about Holi in Pakistan is that most Hindus welcome people of other religions and castes in their festivities.

Learn more about this author, Gulrukh Tausif.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.