NEW YORK, U.S.A., March 3, 2007: Holi is one festival Indians love to celebrate wherever they are. Those in the United States are all set to have a great time on Sunday to mark the festival of colors. The Gujarati Society of central Florida will organize a Holi get-together at a park in Orlando on Sunday. The event will start with a motorcade from Shri Lakshmi Narayan Mandir and culminate at the park at noon, according to the online edition of Orlando Sentinel. Holi is the annual and popular HIndu spring festival. It is celebrated during the later part of February or early March.
Similar celebrations are also planned in the Richmond Hill area of New York City on Sunday. In Richmond, the day is celebrated as Phagwah, the Indo-Caribbean Hindu celebration of New Year. Indo-Caribbean immigrants brought the festival here from Guyana and Trinidad. Indian migrants who went to the Caribbean as laborers in the 19th and 20th centuries celebrate Holi in Guyana, Surinam and Trinidad. The festival flourished there and became naturalized as Phagwah. During the 1970s many Guyanese who migrated to the U.S. brought the Phagwah tradition to their new home. The Phagwah parade in Richmond Hill is one of the biggest celebrations in North America. If it’s a warm day, some 25,000 people are expected to join the 2007 parade.