Pakistani Hindus paint color to each other's faces to celebrate the Holi Festival in Lahore, Pakistan, on March 1, 2018. Holi Festival, also known as Spring Festival of Colors, usually falls in the later part of February or March, and it is celebrated by Hindu residents around the world by throwing colored powder, or gulal at each other. (Xinhua/Imran Ali)
by Raheela Nazir
ISLAMABAD, March 1 (Xinhua) -- The Hindu community in Pakistan on Thursday celebrated Holi, the festival of colors that falls in the lunar month of Phalguna of the Hindu calendar with great traditional zeal and fervor.
Holi is celebrated with the onset of spring and is widely recognized for the throwing and applying of colored powders on friends and family members. Holi signifies the victory of good over evil. This year, the date fell on the 1st of March.
Colorful events were held in different localities and temples of the Hindu communities, where children and women also participated in with warmth and religious devotion in two-day celebrations.
Security was exceptionally tight around all Hindu temples across the country, and worshippers had to undergo a thorough search before they entered venues of the festival, according to local media reports.
Like other Hindus across the country, Karishma was celebrating the day in the country's capital of Islamabad. She is a mass communication student at NUST University in Islamabad. Hailing from the country's southern Sindh Province, Karishma lives in a hostel. She is a Pakistani Hindu and the day was her day of celebration.
Unfortunately, due to the hectic load of classes and upcoming examinations, she was unable to go home to her family and join in on the celebrations.
However, Karishma was celebrating the joyous occasion with her hostel-mates. There was lots of laughter, screams of happiness and colors everywhere in her room. All the girls were carrying bottles and little balloons filled with colored water, running around in an attempt to splash the colors on each other.
"My Muslim friends and hostel-mates did not let me feel that I am far away from my family on this eventful day," she exclaimed, adding that "this is what Pakistanis truly are, united, full of life, love and oblivious to any sort of differences."
In Pakistan, Hindus make up around 2 percent of the country's 200 million people and most of them reside in southern Sindh Province. Due to their history, Hindus have a very rich background, they are business oriented, educationists and philanthropists who always believed in the message of humanity, interfaith harmony, peace and tranquility, Aroon Kumar Kundnani, coordinator of the Pakistan-Hindu Council, told Xinhua.
He also termed Holi as the festival of colors or the festival of sharing love. It's not only an ancient Hindu religious festival, but a cultural and spring festival which has become popular in people belonging in different religions and ethnicities in many parts of South Asia, as well as people of other communities outside Asia.
Pakistani Hindus have also urged the government to declare Holi as a national holiday, citing a similar decision taken by the Sindh provincial government a couple of years ago.
On the colorful occasion, the country's political leaders, celebrities and the general public have extended their heartiest greetings to the Hindu communities in Pakistan.
Holi was celebrated on the premises of Sindh Assembly after the day's session. Members of the assembly smeared each other with colors to mark the festival.
In addition, many Pakistanis took to Twitter to deliver Holi messages. Faraz Ahmed wrote that "May the celebrations today also usher in peace, prosperity and joy not only in the lives of Hindus but in the lives of all people. Happy Holi to everyone in Pakistan and across the globe."