Mary Cuffy

Imag­ine a world where the air is filled with laugh­ter, mu­sic, and a rain­bow of pow­ders fly­ing every­where. You might think it’s a wild par­ty, but for many fam­i­lies in Trinidad, this is a spe­cial re­li­gious and cul­tur­al cel­e­bra­tion called Phag­wa, al­so known as Holi. Re­cent­ly, the stu­dents at Gand­hi Memo­r­i­al APS Vedic School turned their com­pound in­to a vi­brant play­ground of joy to mark the oc­ca­sion.

Phag­wa is a joy­ful oc­ca­sion that brings peo­ple to­geth­er. Al­though it has deep roots in the Hin­du re­li­gion, every­one is wel­come to join in the fun! Dur­ing the fes­ti­val, friends and fam­i­ly douse each oth­er with bright, colour­ful liq­uids and pow­ders called gu­lal or abeer. While re­cy­cled plas­tic bot­tles are pop­u­lar to­day, the tra­di­tion­al ves­sel for spray­ing abeer is called a pichaka­ree. These are of­ten made from PVC pipes and plas­tic, mak­ing them safe and easy for chil­dren to use.

The cel­e­bra­tion is al­so filled with live­ly mu­sic. The tra­di­tion­al songs sung for Phag­wa are called Chow­tal, and groups are usu­al­ly ac­com­pa­nied by en­er­getic dancers who keep the rhythm go­ing.

At Gand­hi Memo­r­i­al APS Vedic School, the af­ter­noon was filled with ex­cite­ment. Stu­dents from the In­fants De­part­ment ran around the school sa­van­nah, cov­ered in the colours of the rain­bow. It wasn’t just about the colours, though; it was about friend­ship and hav­ing a great time to­geth­er.

When asked what they loved most about the day, the stu­dents had plen­ty to say.

Arun Mathu­ra

I love to play Phag­wa with my friends. I en­joy run­ning around the sa­van­nah as well.

Kaveer Jat­tan

Phag­wa is Fun! I like to play Phag­wa with my friends at school. The colours were a big hit, too.

Al­ice Mo­hammed

I love to play Phag­wa be­cause the beau­ti­ful colours ex­cite me. I love hav­ing a great time with my friends.

Sumayya Raza­ck

I like to play Phag­wa be­cause it’s so much fun! Pur­ple is my favourite colour.

Ava Marie Singh

I en­joy play­ing Phag­wa be­cause I love the colours, es­pe­cial­ly pink and pur­ple.

Sarai Ohree

I like to play Phag­wa be­cause it’s fun and I love spend­ing time with my friends.

Sabi­ra Khan

I like to play Phag­wa be­cause it’s fun and I love the colours.

Be­yond the fun and games, Phag­wa teach­es im­por­tant lessons. There are sev­er­al re­li­gious ex­pla­na­tions for the fes­ti­val, in­clud­ing a sto­ry from the Bha­ga­va­ta Pu­rana. It tells the sto­ry of King Hi­ranyaka­shipu, who be­came a tyrant, and his sis­ter Ho­li­ka. Ho­li­ka tried to hurt her nephew, Pra­ha­l­ad, who re­fused to wor­ship his fa­ther. In the end, Ho­li­ka died while try­ing to do evil, but Pra­ha­l­ad was saved. In Trinidad, this sto­ry is re­mem­bered by burn­ing an ef­fi­gy of Ho­li­ka, which sym­bol­is­es cleans­ing and the vic­to­ry of good over evil.