Indian Festivals to Be Bigger

The Indian High Commission is looking to expand activities to celebrate the Indian culture in Jamaica and engage more locals in these events.

High Commissioner, His Excellency Masakui Rungsung, tells JIS News that additional sponsors are being sought to mainstream the events and to make them “bigger”.

“We would like to open up the Indian festival celebrations to the people, that’s the whole idea, but we will have to find a way how to do it; it is about organising it. Funding is involved if we are to mainstream it and make it bigger but… we are getting there,” he says.

Among the events are the Holi Festival of Colours and Diwali celebrations.

Holi is an annual Hindu festival celebrated in India and across the world, which welcomes the beginning of spring.

Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, celebrates the triumph of good over evil.

It is related to the legend of Lord Rams’ return to Ayodhya, a city in India, after 14 years in exile.

The people lit clay lamps to welcome him back.

This year’s staging of Holi Festival was held at the Bandstand Lawns, Royal Botanical Gardens, St. Andrew on March 24, marking the second year that the event was open to the public.

The fun-filled event included games, music and cultural performances with festival-goers playfully throwing powders in the colours of red, yellow, blue, green and purple into the air and at each other.

High Commissioner Rungsung tells JIS News that the event was previously held at India House, which is the official residence of the Indian High Commissioner, however, a decision was taken to move it to Hope Gardens so that more Jamaicans could participate.

“We thought we would mainstream it and let others know about it,” he says.

He says that more than 1,000 persons attended the event at Hope Gardens compared to about 200 when it was held at India House.

“The whole idea is to let other people come in. Most of them are not known to me and that’s the whole idea, not to confine the celebration of Holi Festival only to a few people,” he notes.

Additionally, High Commissioner Rungsung says that about 300 persons attended the Diwali celebrations, which was held last November at India House.

He thanks the sponsors and members of the Indian community in Jamaica, who have been very supportive of cultural programmes organised by the Commission over the years.

Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) Chair of Indology and Gandhian Studies at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona, Professor Balaganapathi Devarakonda, who attended the Holi festival at Hope Gardens, tells JIS News that “I am glad that the Jamaican/Indian community are all coming together…to celebrate [Holi] with a lot of enthusiasm.”

He says that Holi in Jamaica is celebrated with “more enthusiasm”.

“It is routine, but I find people here don’t find it to be routine. I find that people here show more enthusiasm. I find that is something very interesting, and also, new people are getting attracted to this festival and that also adds to the enthusiasm,” he notes.

“Once you come here and understand the philosophy behind it, obviously, it increases the levels of enthusiasm,” he says further.

Holi Festival, also known as Phagwah, is celebrated in other Caribbean countries with large Indian populations.

Guyanese national Mary Jones*, who was among the festival attendees, tells JIS News that in her country, a mixture of red dye with water, called Abeer, is used as part of the celebrations.

“This is what it would be like in Guyana. Everybody just comes together, bring the family out and have a good time and rub powder on each other,” she notes.

“It is all part of the fun. I will definitely be back next year,” she adds.

*Name Changed at Request