In Lallmatie last week-end, processions went from door to door casting around the coloured powder that characterizes Holi festival. The whole of Mauritius, vibrating with singing and dancing, was splashed in Holi colours. ?Holi is essentially a celebration of life, of the triumph of good over evil and the colours smeared on people symbolise joy, and the putting aside of enmity?, Dhundev Bauhadoor, the leader of the Human Service Trust, sums up.

This religious occasion, directly related to the harvesting of winter crops and the beginning of spring in India, never goes by unnoticed here.

On the eve of Holi, Holika Dahan, which literally means the burning of Holika, is celebrated. ?We burn an effigy of Holika made of bamboo and straw, singing Chowtaal and Dhamaar songs (special songs which can only be sung during the 40 days before Holi - when Holika is sworn at and cursed) and dancing around the fire. The songs are accompanied by dholak and jhaal (drums and cymbals).? Special pujas (prayers) including offerings of spiced gram boui are performed.

?This ceremony takes its roots in the legend of King Hiranya Kashyapa. He was a powerful and arrogant king who forced his people to pray to him. His own son, Prahlad, was the only one to refuse. The king asked his sister, Holika, to kill his son. She was, by virtue of a boon, immune to fire so she took her nephew in her arms and entered a blazing fire. But it was she who died and Prahlad survived.? In villages, people clean out their houses on this day and burn all the rubbish they can find as a symbolical destruction of evil. The next day, everyone gathers for Holika Melas, the meetings organized for Holi, and after the joyful sharing of colours, they eat sweet food.