PHARR — A small boy paid no attention to the heat and let the Saturday sun beat down upon his face, and stars filled his dreams as he tiptoed behind a lady preparing to splash a little color into her life.
The city of Pharr partnered with the Indian Association of the Rio Grande Valley on Saturday for the inaugural Holi Festival, held at the Dr. William Long Elementary Park, where community members celebrated the arrival of spring by covering themselves with bright-colored powders.
Laughter and shouts wishing each other “Happy Holi!” rung out from the field as plumes of color filled the air, and smiles became infectious. All who attended didn’t walk away without a splash of brightness of some sort.
These colors have meaning, too.
Scuheta Reddy of the Indian Association said the tradition celebrates spring by incorporating colors such as blue for the gods and green for the earth. People smear the colors on each other as a representation of what is to come.
“It is the beginning of spring after almost a dull winter. There is not much life and it’s so cold, so it is celebrating the arrival of spring,” said Reddy, who added that the festival is celebrated by people from all religions. “It unites everybody … even strangers become friends to you.”
She believes this year’s festival emphasized the celebration of life as people begin to return to normalcy as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wane.
“People are barely coming out of the pandemic, so this is a coming-out kind of thing for everybody after the darkness that we’ve had during the pandemic. Bring life and color back into our lives again,” Reddy said.
Yuri Gonzalez, the city of Pharr public information officer, said she hopes the event will become an annual tradition in the community where people from different backgrounds can learn about other cultures and traditions.
“We have a huge Hispanic community in the Valley but we are growing so much. It is becoming such a metropolitan area that we want to incorporate other ethnicities, other cultures, other traditions,” Gonzalez said.
Rahul Kashyap, a resident of Weslaco, explained that the event is more than a festival of color, but a celebration of people coming together not just in the Indian community but from other cultures.
“It is the symbolism of equality where you get painted with colors and just enjoy each other,” Kashyap said.
Crystal Escobedo, a resident of Pharr, attended the event with her 9-year-old son to support other communities and to give her child the opportunity to “experience more than just our Hispanic culture and to let him know there is more than just one out there.”
She believes that the colorful event was the setup for better days to come as Easter also approaches.
The president of the Indian Association, Hari Namboodiri, said that the festival’s main objective is to promote international understanding in a fun and colorful way.
He also hopes that next year’s event will see more attendees. There will certainly be more food, at least according to Namboodiri.
“We are going to have vendors of Indian food, Mexican food or any other food, vendors of jewelry, art, and artifacts,” he said, noting that the Holi Festival will continue to be a place to celebrate the cultural significance of many communities in the Valley.
