Phagwah in New York | Sepia Mutiny

This last weekend saw the Indo-Guyanese Phagwah/Holi celebration in the neighborhood of Richmond Hills, Queens. It’s a big deal:

The Phagwah parade in Richmond Hill is one of the biggest celebrations in North America. If it’s a warm day, some 25,000 people are expected to join the 2007 parade, according to reports. [Link]

p>Of course things were a bit different than they were in Guyana. Here you can only get messy in a designated area, not on the street:

Freedom in Guyana means color everywhere. In Queens, powders and dyes are restricted to the park. During the parade, police officers eyed the crowd warily, ready to confiscate bottles and packets of the rule breakers, of whom there were many. [Link]

p>Even this restricted celebration is a compromise on the city’s part. At one point,

… the city threatened to cancel the parade fearing that someone could introduce anthrax into the Johnson’s Baby Powder (the city did not say why someone capable of producing weaponized anthrax by the bucketful would want to kill a bunch of Guyanese). Richmond Hill community leaders protested, and a compromise was reached: people marching in the parade could douse each other but not the spectators along the route. [Link – note, that’s Preston!]

p>Using fears of anthrax in baby powder to forbid phagwah is around as reasonable as using fears that terrorists will spike green dye with toxins to forbid St. Paddy’s day. I’m glad somebody was able to talk the NYPD down from that ledge.

p>Preston has some great photos from the 2004 celebration, including the one below. You can see photos of this year’s celebration at the NYT.

8 thoughts on “Phagwah in New York”

Wow–thanks, Ennis. Just one side note of photography arcana: Eric Harvey Brown at the NYTimes appears to have taken his pictures with a Holga, a $25 plastic camera, which he probably discarded after the event since it was full of baby powder.

Also, the article claims that the Indian festival of holi was transplanted to the Caribbean where it became known as phagwah. But the word phagwah is used in some parts of Bihar, where most of the Caribbean Indians trace their heritage.

Phagwah in the Caribbean is one of two big national days in Guyana and Trinidad (the other is Arrival Day, commemorating the first British vessel to arrive in Trinidad with Indian indentured labor). Phagwah, being more fun and participatory and obviously media friendly, is becoming the big Indo-Caribbean cultural day in the diaspora. It also cuts across racial lines. Caribbean blacks have fun with it, too, even if just in small numbers. But given the racial politics of the region that’s a pretty big deal.

But the word phagwah is used in some parts of Bihar, where most of the Caribbean Indians trace their heritage.

Yes, it derives from Phalgun (or in some dialects ‘phagun’) which is the month that holi takes place in.

I believe Diwali is also huge among Indo-Caribbean people.

Great post Ennis. I grew up in Queens so this is the highlight of the few big events that take place in Queens along with the Hong Kong Dragon Boat festival and US Open. An old landlord a long time ago was from Trinidad and he and his family would have a huge puja every Pagwah in the morning and then set out to visit families and play with color. It was just like it was when I was a kid and I got invited along a few times. It really was sweet. There are entire blocks in Richmond Hill that people are out and about celebrating and it’s really so nice.

“But the word phagwah is used in some parts of Bihar, where most of the Caribbean Indians trace their heritage.”

Don’t I know it! I am from Bihar and married to an Indian “girl” (she would like that word) from Trinidad for almost 35 years. Our common Bihari heritage is sheer coincidence.

Phagwah is a bhojpuri word used primarily by the rural people in the East UP and West Bihar region, which used to be the sugar cane belt of the North and therefore was a natural source for indentured labor shipped to the Caribbean to work on cane fields. A lot of bhojpuri/rural Hindi words, as well UP/Bihar customs, are still intact in Trinidad. Even their version of Indian food is quite Bihari, though there have been some diasporic changes as in the use of white flour for their rotis and parathas, renaming some of the dishes incorrectly, and so on. I once took my Bihari dad to Trinidad and he was astounded that they still made certain foods that have practically become extinct in Bihar, perhaps due to a pan-Indian, “Tandoori chicken” influence. It reminded him of his early childhood and his mother’s cooking, which would have been in the 1930’s.

The use of talcum powder is a typical Indo-Caribbean thing. We Indians go for the jugular with real abir and colors, all washable, of course. This year we bought the perfumed abirs, not that the perfume part is all that pleasant.

Trinidad, the one Caribbean country I have come to know almost as well as India, is not without its Indo-African racial tension. That said, it is still true that all religions and races celebrate each other’s festivals. My wife’s family, though Hindus, have always celebrated Christmas. Muslims and Christians do play phagwah and light diyas for diwali. Everybody goes to Diwali Nagar, the center that my wife’s family built many years ago.

Do Indo-Carribeans use talcum powder because of its use during Carnival? Eastern Parkway is full of powder during Labor Day weekend (well not totally full, but its around!)

The use of talcum powder is a typical Indo-Caribbean thing.

It’s also a typical Fijian thing. From what I’ve been told by my mom, Phagwah celebrations, though not as elaborate as Diwali, were a close second in Fiji.

Just one side note of photography arcana: Eric Harvey Brown at the NYTimes appears to have taken his pictures with a Holga, a $25 plastic camera, which he probably discarded after the event since it was full of baby powder.

Aha! I thought so, with that tell-tale vignetting.

“Phagwah” seemed vaguely familiar (till I read the Floridian’s post), but I have rarely ever heard of it being used to refer to Holi – atleast in Delhi where I am from, “Holi” is the more common terminology. But I am sure I knew of the word as something related to Southeast Asia, that I can’t remember right now.

Anyway, playing Holi is fun, especially in a foreign country where you have people looking at you and wondering what the hell you think you’re doing. Even better, when white people join in! In some ways, its better in the US because only permit vegetable colors and powders are permitted – none of that chemical-based stuff that people in India play with now.

Preston on March 13, 2007 at 11:05 am said:

Wow–thanks, Ennis. Just one side note of photography arcana: Eric Harvey Brown at the NYTimes appears to have taken his pictures with a Holga, a $25 plastic camera, which he probably discarded after the event since it was full of baby powder.

Also, the article claims that the Indian festival of holi was transplanted to the Caribbean where it became known as phagwah. But the word phagwah is used in some parts of Bihar, where most of the Caribbean Indians trace their heritage.

Phagwah in the Caribbean is one of two big national days in Guyana and Trinidad (the other is Arrival Day, commemorating the first British vessel to arrive in Trinidad with Indian indentured labor). Phagwah, being more fun and participatory and obviously media friendly, is becoming the big Indo-Caribbean cultural day in the diaspora. It also cuts across racial lines. Caribbean blacks have fun with it, too, even if just in small numbers. But given the racial politics of the region that’s a pretty big deal.
Amitabh on March 13, 2007 at 12:46 pm said:

But the word phagwah is used in some parts of Bihar, where most of the Caribbean Indians trace their heritage.

Yes, it derives from Phalgun (or in some dialects ‘phagun’) which is the month that holi takes place in.

I believe Diwali is also huge among Indo-Caribbean people.
Janeofalltrades on March 13, 2007 at 12:52 pm said:

Great post Ennis. I grew up in Queens so this is the highlight of the few big events that take place in Queens along with the Hong Kong Dragon Boat festival and US Open. An old landlord a long time ago was from Trinidad and he and his family would have a huge puja every Pagwah in the morning and then set out to visit families and play with color. It was just like it was when I was a kid and I got invited along a few times. It really was sweet. There are entire blocks in Richmond Hill that people are out and about celebrating and it’s really so nice.
Floridian on March 13, 2007 at 1:16 pm said:

“But the word phagwah is used in some parts of Bihar, where most of the Caribbean Indians trace their heritage.”

Don’t I know it! I am from Bihar and married to an Indian “girl” (she would like that word) from Trinidad for almost 35 years. Our common Bihari heritage is sheer coincidence.

Phagwah is a bhojpuri word used primarily by the rural people in the East UP and West Bihar region, which used to be the sugar cane belt of the North and therefore was a natural source for indentured labor shipped to the Caribbean to work on cane fields. A lot of bhojpuri/rural Hindi words, as well UP/Bihar customs, are still intact in Trinidad. Even their version of Indian food is quite Bihari, though there have been some diasporic changes as in the use of white flour for their rotis and parathas, renaming some of the dishes incorrectly, and so on. I once took my Bihari dad to Trinidad and he was astounded that they still made certain foods that have practically become extinct in Bihar, perhaps due to a pan-Indian, “Tandoori chicken” influence. It reminded him of his early childhood and his mother’s cooking, which would have been in the 1930’s.

The use of talcum powder is a typical Indo-Caribbean thing. We Indians go for the jugular with real abir and colors, all washable, of course. This year we bought the perfumed abirs, not that the perfume part is all that pleasant.

Trinidad, the one Caribbean country I have come to know almost as well as India, is not without its Indo-African racial tension. That said, it is still true that all religions and races celebrate each other’s festivals. My wife’s family, though Hindus, have always celebrated Christmas. Muslims and Christians do play phagwah and light diyas for diwali. Everybody goes to Diwali Nagar, the center that my wife’s family built many years ago.
Denise on March 13, 2007 at 2:06 pm said:

Do Indo-Carribeans use talcum powder because of its use during Carnival? Eastern Parkway is full of powder during Labor Day weekend (well not totally full, but its around!)
IslandGirl on March 13, 2007 at 4:46 pm said:

The use of talcum powder is a typical Indo-Caribbean thing.

It’s also a typical Fijian thing. From what I’ve been told by my mom, Phagwah celebrations, though not as elaborate as Diwali, were a close second in Fiji.
tamasha on March 13, 2007 at 7:07 pm said:

Just one side note of photography arcana: Eric Harvey Brown at the NYTimes appears to have taken his pictures with a Holga, a $25 plastic camera, which he probably discarded after the event since it was full of baby powder.

Aha! I thought so, with that tell-tale vignetting.
Sourav on March 14, 2007 at 10:50 am said:

“Phagwah” seemed vaguely familiar (till I read the Floridian’s post), but I have rarely ever heard of it being used to refer to Holi – atleast in Delhi where I am from, “Holi” is the more common terminology. But I am sure I knew of the word as something related to Southeast Asia, that I can’t remember right now.

Anyway, playing Holi is fun, especially in a foreign country where you have people looking at you and wondering what the hell you think you’re doing. Even better, when white people join in! In some ways, its better in the US because only permit vegetable colors and powders are permitted – none of that chemical-based stuff that people in India play with now.