DFW Hindu Temple Society Celebrates 25th Anniversary with Holi Festival in Irving, Texas

By Asia World Media
Photographed by Jarvis Jacobs

The DFW Hindu Temple Society, in Irving, TX, celebrates spring with wild colors, bright pink, yellow, blue and green, on Wednesday, March 23, 2016. The annual celebration is a popular event among the millennial but this year celebration is special, the Society is celebrating its 25^th Anniversary 1991-2016. Hundreds of North Texas enthusiasts came to share in the celebration, to enjoy the exotic India cuisines and dance away with the DJ music. Every attendee has an opportunity to purchase special Holi colors bag before the Holi Festival celebration begins.

Holi, usually celebrate in India and Nepal, is a popular festival that celebrates the arrival of spring and harvests to come, also known as the festival of sharing love. Holi is celebrated with special importance in the North of India. It’s the festival of colors, emotions, and happiness. The two days festivals fall somewhere between the end of February and the middle of March in the Gregorian calendar. The first day is known as Holika Dahan or Chhoti Holi and the second as Rangwali Holi, Dhuleti, Dhulandi or Dhulivandan.

Holi has long traditional links with several ancient stories. One story regarding the origination word of Holi, derived from the demoness, Holika. Holi festival is celebrated to mark the burning of the evil Holika.

According to www.sensationalcolor.com, the central ritual of Holi is the throwing and applying of colored water or powders on friends and family, which gives the holiday its common name “Festival of Colors.” The clouds of colors dancing in the wind carry the message of love and happiness across walls, neighbors, and hearts.

Every color means something special in the Indian psyche. Red, for instance, is a mark of matrimony; brides in India wear red most often at their wedding since it symbolizes fertility, love, beauty, and, most importantly, is a sign of a married woman. It is considered custom in the ways of Hinduism to wear red powder-Kumkum on the peak of their forehead. Most often considered the prerogative of a married woman, a red dot is worn between the eyebrows to symbolize blissful matrimony.

Yellow is yet another important color in the Indian psyche. Yellow is almost synonymous with turmeric, an ingredient of great importance at auspicious functions across religions. It is perhaps revered more so because of its medicinal use right from the ancient times. Turmeric is used even today for the treatment of inflammatory and digestive disorders.

Other colors that tease the skies on Holi include blue, the color of the revered god in Hinduism, Lord Krishna. Green symbolizes new beginnings, harvest, and fertility, and is also the sacred color of the Muslim community in India. Saffron is often associated with Hinduism, piety, and strength.

The spirit of the festival became very popular in India that it spreads to North Texas annually. It cuts across all classes, castes, and religions and brings people together. The DFW Hindu Temple Society hosted the celebration with the onset of spring by filling everyone’s day and life with the colors, music, singing, dancing and throwing the Holi colors on each other.