As the executive committee chair of Amsterdam South East, a district with almost 95.000 inhabitants and 170 nationalities and cultures, I welcome the festival of Holi!
Since my childhood I have been celebrating this festival with its vibrant colors. The ritual starts by lighting up the bonfire one day before the day of Holi. My grandmom told me this symbolizes the triumph of good over the bad.
On the day of Holi the colors are the main attraction; people play, laugh, and celebrate. There is a sense of union, forgetting resentments and negative feelings towards each other. In the end, everybody is full of color and looks alike. This dissipates the barriers of status, skin color and so on.
Holi is a great opportunity to reflect on celebrating what unites us instead of our differences. Especially in “my” part of Amsterdam Holi is an inspiration, underlining the importance of connecting despite differences. We currently face a crisis of being disconnected. The Coronavirus pandemic is not over yet but the signs of its impact on our wellbeing are evident. In addition, current political discourse is all but colourful. As a matter of fact, it is gloomy with emphasis on differences. It is even more terrifying that this seems appealing. The debates in parliament, the media, television, newspapers, social media reflect an increasing sense of not belonging and not caring. As our political leaders lead the way to a society of justice it worries me that this notion of leadership seems to be forgotten. The festival of Holi brings inspiration to the discussion. The diversity of colors thrown in abundance can invite us to develop a more wholesome and inclusive relationship with the diverse aspects of ourselves, others and our ecosystem.
Instead of debating on our differences, we should be adding color to the debate by asking how we can serve the people instead of demanding ego-driven answers on how to divide people. This festival could inspire us to another set of actions by adding color to our words.
Let me introduce an out of the box idea
What if we added Justice and Just Love to the conversations and debates to drive positive change? Justice, in the form of fairness and social justice that brings equal opportunities and possibilities to education, housing , jobs, and healthcare.
Instead of debating on who to blame… who said what and when, let the focus be on solving problems. Rather than pitting people against one another, let us all join together to find solutions to our problems through the lens of Holi; being equal by adding colors with justice as the focus. And, of course, as holi is the festival of love, we add love to the conversation. I am convinced that it is in this collaboration of Justice and Just Love that the festival of connection starts. While romantic love is a wonderful part of life that we should definitely celebrate, here, we are talking about love for humanity; love for life itself. We need to realize our common ground—at the end of the day, we are all seeking to have fulfilling and meaningful lives. It is in Holi I find the appealing idea that connection is possible through finding the common ground of being human first. Being human is finding that space where souls connect despite race, religion or status where the view is to open doors of access and opportunity for everyone, particularly those in greatest need. Back to Amsterdam South East where diversity is a fact of life and my focus is to celebrate all 170 cultures and nationalities. My aim is to have a festival of connection every year celebrating all cultures inspired by Holi. The time has come to change perspectives and add color to political and academic debates and debates on the question of doing the right thing. We have the ability to invent almost anything so let us invent just a little more. Let us invent a place in the mind where the connection in all its colors bursts into love.
Love for the self, love for community and love for justice. Just Love
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