Colourful powders were the order of the day yesterday for Hindus around the world as they celebrated Holi, the annual festival of colours.
The festival is often referred to as New Year celebration for the faithful.
On the day, Hindus share a common theme and it’s about colour, religious songs and the sharing of food.
There is funfare and joy.
The abundance of colours though easily stands out as a significant part of the celebrations.
Holi is about a new beginning.
The faithful will consider an end to past errors and conflicts and they will look forward with hope and renewed vigour to a new beginning.
However, in our context as a multiracial and multi-religious country, the day shouldn’t be just about Hindus celebrating a very special festival.
We have an opportunity to appreciate an event that we can all learn from.
As we go about our daily lives today, perhaps we should remind ourselves that we all make mistakes.
As human beings, we all have our moments of weakness.
Yet despite this, we each can look back at them and learn to make decisions that are good for us all.
Hopefully we all can have it in our hearts to forgive and get over conflicting views.
Yesterday was when Hindus around the world looked forward with optimism and hope, to a new beginning.
They will plan to take a positive step forward, having learnt from the past, and appreciated the need to embrace lessons with a positive mind.
No matter what religion we belong to, or believe in, there is one common factor that binds us together.
There is an appreciation of good over evil and acknowledgement of the fact that we all make mistakes.
It isn’t easy to learn from our mistakes and move forward, however, it is something that should make our lives a whole lot better in the end.
Such festivals should remind us about who we are.
We are fun loving people.
We value friendship, talk about many things and appreciate many other things.
We are united every time the national rugby 7s team runs on to the field for instance, and we show our true multiracial colours every time we celebrate such events as Holi.
As we face one of our greatest challenges as a nation in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic, we are reminded about unity.
Fiji definitely needs such events to bring our people together, more often than not.
