As reported earlier, in a first of its kind Holi celebration in New Zealand the ‘Faag Mahotsav’ has started gaining momentum now and more and more community organisations are joining hands to take part in the event. Till the time of writing this article more than sixty organisations have come to the fold to celebrate the festival of Faag or Holi.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Faag is a short form, derived from the Hindi month of ‘Falgun’, the month as per Hindu calendar, when festival of Holi is celebrated. In the northern parts of India this festival is celebrated for up to two weeks. In the villages, people will gather at dusk and sing and dance to the beats of ‘Dhol’ and ‘Dhap’. Traditional folk songs and folk dances go on till late in the night and the festivities continue till the day of Holi. In different parts of northern state of Uttar Pradesh, especially in Mathura district (popularly know as Brij) this is the biggest celebration of the year, known as ‘Faag’. In other Indian states this festival is celebrated with different names around same time.
The Auckland Faag Mahotsav 2021 will kick off on 27th March from Shri Ram Mandir at Henderson and will finish with a grand event on Monday 5th April at the Mahatma Gandhi Centre at 145 New North Road, Eden Terrace in Auckland. The ‘Faag’ organising committee held a ‘meet the press’ at Shanti Niwas, to update media and the community regarding the preparations of the event. Shanti Niwas General Manager Nilima Venkat, and conveners Rupen Chand and Dinesh Pahuja gave an overview about event and answered questions from the media.
The grand event of 5th April is around half a day long, a range of activities event comprises of Rangoli competition, Mehndi and Colouring competition apart from several musical and dance performances. Participants from Fiji, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar are also expected to take part in the event. A range of dignitaries are expected to attend the event like High Commissioner of India, diplomats of different countries, Mayors, ministers of NZ government, MPs and other business and community leaders. The Indian News will keep you posted about the event in next issues as well. -TIN Bureau
