Photo essay: Spokane’s Hindu community celebrates new beginnings this Holi
News Story by Cassy Benefield | FāVS News
Photos by Gen Heywood | FāVS News
Spokane’s Hindu community had a lot to rejoice for Saturday (March 15) when they celebrated their annual Holi Festival, also known as the Festival of Colors. The first of which was leaving all their mistakes behind to begin anew, as well as the triumph of good over evil.
“Holi marks the beginning of spring,” Spokane Hindu Temple & Cultural Center (SHTCC) member Shweta Mittal said. “Like when in spring, the plants start from the soil. So it also marks the beginning of your life.”
From 10 a.m. to around 1:15 p.m., about 170 people came to watch and participate in this sacred ceremony hosted by SHTCC, which doubled as a fundraiser for the temple.
The attendees joined devotees and symbolically released last year’s negative energy into the flame of the bonfire, which was consecrated in the center of the temple’s room. There they also prayed for and welcomed peace for the new year.
“Because the fire is so powerful, you cleanse your demons or the body or the soul and then start new,” Mittal said. ‘[You] burn all your ego and your arrogance, all the bad things you were having, because we are human. We make mistakes right?”
After the sacred rite, the community put on an informal program explaining the source of Holi and sharing their culture through song, dance and food.
Brothers Vivaan and Kayaan Puri read to the audience about the two stories Holi came from. One was about the young Krishna, who had dark skin and was in love with Radha, who had fair skin. He didn’t know if Radha would love him for his dark complexion. So, he colored her face to match his, at least one telling says. Then, they became a couple. That playful coloring of the face is what is commemorated on Holi.
The other was Prahalad, which symbolizes unwavering belief in the dharma, or the Hindu way of life, and doing the right thing no matter what, even if there remains much opposition from family, friends or acquaintances, said Himani Agrawal-Gupta, an SHTCC member.
Hindus practice this way of life daily, which the festivals magnify by their stories and rituals. At the same time, these rituals keep the history of the dharma alive through the generations, Agrawal-Gupta said.
“The essance of life is told in the form of stories, our value system, the dharma,” Agrawal-Gupta said. “That is the key in every Hindu festival.”
Then, the community celebrated their new temple location, which they moved to the first week of February, as well as it being the first day they met their new priest, Devraj Tiwari, a Sanskrit scholar from Nepal.
For nearly nine years, SHTCC has desired to find a permanent home for their temple and cultural center to perform their spiritual practice with more flexibility. While this is still not a permanent temple location for them, it is much larger than ones they have had previously.
Coming from various regions of India, each member practices festivals and rituals a little differently based on where they are from. Now, they have a full-time priest who his able to open the temple and consecrate it and the dieties any day of the week. This gives members the freedom and ability to modify their rituals based on their particular regional culture.
Shiva Kiran, who is on SHTCC’s executive commitee, had a hand in arranging the interior of the temple. He said idols, rituals and temples are to be built, sized and placed a certain way according to Agama Shastra, texts that explain Hindu traditions.
This helps the space better carry the vibrations of the sounds made in the rituals and the silences kept for worship, which aid their temple practice, he said.
“When you come to a temple, you need to feel you are in a temple,” Kiran said.
They plan on being at this location for a year, he said, hoping to acheive a permanent home for their temple in 2026.
Many visitors participated in this year’s Holi temple service due to the larger space. One of them was Antoinette Go, and it was her first time attending a Hindu ceremony.
Her friend Priyanka Chand invited her. The two met in a Müv Fitness Zumba class about three years ago, when COVID restrictions ended.
“We try to exchange each other’s cultures,” Chand said.
Go, a Philipino and an international school teacher of computers, was married in a Buddhist ceremony in Thailand and became familiar with Islam in Pakistan. She said she enjoys learning about other cultures and belief systems.
“I love it. I’m a sucker for this type of thing,” Go said referring to the Holi festival.
Chand said when she came to America, she had no family here. So the community at the temple and her Zumba class — which includes people from five continents — became her family.
“We started building our own family,” Chand said. “We love getting together. Best way to really appreciate another culture is to appreciate their food.”
SHTCC agrees. They served all the attendees a traditional hot Indian meal in the temple after the Holi ritual and the festivities. The entire meal was donated by a devotee of the temple, organizers said.
Once everyone had eaten and enjoyed a time of fellowship, they headed to Mirabeau Point Park to meet at 1:30 p.m. There, they threw colors and celebrated their new beginnings dancing to Bollywood music and a Dohl drum.
With a new location and a full-time priest, the SHTCC community members are as excited about this next year, said Executive Commitee member Kiran, as they were about celebrating Holi with such joyful abandon and colors yesterday.
With Tiwari helping the temple members learn their dharma better and with more precision, grandparents and parents said they find comfort knowing their youth will carry their way of life forward.
“I will teach our children our culture and our traditions,” Tiwari said.
