Holi, the Hindu festival of colours, returns to Edmonton for first time since 2020
CBC
The air around Hindu temples will once again be filled with colour this weekend as Holi celebrations return after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Around the start of the pandemic in 2020, Holi was one of the first events to be cancelled in Edmonton. Now, with gathering restrictions lifted, it's making a return.
A number of community groups in the city have organized events to mark the occasion, including one happening Saturday afternoon hosted by Bhartiya Cultural Society of Alberta.
The festival starts at 2 p.m. outside the society's temple at 9507 39th Ave. It's free and anyone can attend.
Pankaj Dixit, pandit (priest) for the society, told CBC's Edmonton AM that the community is excited for Holi's return.
"There will be colours, putting colour on each other's forehead, hugging and dances. New life, new era, new phase begins after the pandemic, with Holi," he said.
The event will include a bonfire, a symbolic event marking the triumph of good over evil.
After that, playing with colours will begin. The festival will also include food, music, dancing and other performances.
Dixit said the cancellation of Holi in 2020 was hard on the community because it is the last festival of the Hindu calendar, after which a new year begins. "So everybody waits for the Holi with lots of enthusiasm," he said.
He said Holi is also a festival where past grievances are forgotten. "You come and you hug each other and you ask, 'Well, if you have anything against me in your mind, just forget it. Let's start a new beginning.'"
Dixit said 1,000 to 1,500 people are expected to fill the parking lot where the event will take place.
The festival marks the event of when Prahlada, the son of a demon king but a devotee of Hindu god Vishnu, was saved after his own father tried to get him killed for his devotion to the god.
His father laid Prahlada in his sister Holika's lap. Holika was blessed to not get hurt by fire. But after a prayer to Vishnu, Prahlada was saved and Holika was burned alive.
When the bonfire is lit, Hindus pray and give offerings. This part of the festival, called Holika Dahan, was marked on Thursday this year.
