{"id":21930,"date":"2025-03-16T01:45:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-16T01:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/?p=21930"},"modified":"2025-03-16T01:45:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-16T01:45:17","slug":"adding-local-color-american-hindus-fashion-holi-into-a-festival-of-belonging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2025\/03\/16\/adding-local-color-american-hindus-fashion-holi-into-a-festival-of-belonging\/","title":{"rendered":"Adding Local Color, American Hindus Fashion Holi Into a Festival of Belonging"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UNITED STATES, March 13, 2025 (RNS): Thursday marked the start of Holi, the colorful festival welcoming in springtime. But it\u2019s not just for Hindus anymore. Anshul Virmani, a software consultant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, said his colleagues at work begin asking about Holi long before his children do. \u201cThey always ask, \u2018When is the color festival? When are you guys gonna do the color-themed event?\u2019\u201d Most Americans would be hard-pressed to name any Hindu holiday, but Holi, the vibrant festival that involves playfully throwing pink, purple, yellow and other brightly hued powders, has become far and away the most recognizable, if still mysterious, event for non-Hindus. In the past decade, Holi celebrations across the U.S. have increased, often filling up an entire month\u2019s weekends or two. While diaspora Hindus are finding new ways to celebrate Holi in their new environs, from family-friendly confetti throwing at public parks to neon-glow parties at the hottest nightclubs, many are also sharing the tradition with a wider audience.

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a lot of people who are not from South Asia coming to our events,\u201d said Virmani, who is an event planner in his spare time. His company, AV Entertainment, will host six Holi events this year, including a popular Holi Cruise Party on the Hudson River, with indoor and outdoor decks and eco-friendly colored streamers. \u201cThey are really our cheerleaders, and they keep encouraging us, motivating us to do more events like these.\u201d Across the broad Hindu tradition, Holi celebrates the victory of good over evil, in some cases basing it on tales in the Bhagavata Purana<\/em> in which Holika, a demon king\u2019s sister, tries and fails to kill Lord Vishnu\u2019s steadfast devotee Prahlada. Other Hindus trace Holi to stories of divine love between blue-skinned Lord Krishna and his consort Radha, to whom he mischievously applied colors to match his appearance. In some traditions, Holi is a two-day feast. In others, the revelry goes on for more than a month. Hindu families light bonfires (to burn away evil, but also to destroy Holika), share foods and sweets with their neighbors and then chase each other through the streets with colored powders, shouting the Hindi greeting \u201cHoli hai!\u201d (It\u2019s Holi!)

More at source.
https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2025\/03\/13\/you-cant-spell-holiday-without-holi-hindus-share\/
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UNITED STATES, March 13, 2025 (RNS): Thursday marked the start of Holi, the colorful festival welcoming in springtime. But it\u2019s,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21938,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21930"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21939,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21930\/revisions\/21939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}