The Holi Music Festival
Holi is celebrated in spring, usually in March, but don’t tell that to the organizers of the Holi Color Festival, which was set to be held on Sept. 27 in Holland, Ohio. Offering $35 tickets on Groupon, they promised a six-hour event with live music and lots of colorful powder and paint. Organizers would distribute bags of “non-toxic, eco-friendly” powder and also “squirt massive streams of paint, transforming the audience into a living Jackson Pollock painting.”
If they’ve co-opted a Hindu festival for their own enjoyment and profit, they do acknowledge it: “Though the music at Holi Color Festival is thoroughly modern, the festival’s roots can be traced to the distant past. The Hindu Holi tradition began in ancient India as a day dedicated to acts of forgiveness and positivity. Those inspirations remain strong at this non-religious festival, where it’s common to see strangers hugging and smearing paint across each other’s faces.”
But that’s hardly going to appease those who’ve seen a little too much cultural appropriation. As Sandip Roy wrote on First Post: “Thanks guys. That’s just so gracious of you to acknowledge the little brown people as you make our pokey messy Holi, bigger, better, and whiter. Not to mention non-toxic and eco-friendly. By the way, have you copyrighted the name yet?”
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
[Comments? Contributions? Please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips, and more.]
Enjoyed reading Khabar magazine? Subscribe to Khabar and get a full digital copy of this Indian-American community magazine.
