MP Tony McNulty attended a Hindu spring festival celebration on Saturday [22nd March 08], accompanied by Councillor Navin Shah, leader of the Labour Group at Harrow Council, and fellow MP Gareth Thomas.
McNulty said: "We get to celebrate the spring. The weather may not be spring but in peoples hearts it is."
Harrow's Hindu community celebrated the religious festival of Holi Dhamaka at the Shree Kutch Leva Patel Community India Gardens, in West End Road, Northolt, where guests threw coloured powder and dye over one another, ate Indian food and listened to live music.
The festival is based on the story of Holika and Prahalad, who worshipped his God, Vishnu, against the wishes of his father Hiranyakashyap. Hiranyakashyap demanded his son say he was superior to God and, when Prahalad refused, he decided to try and kill him. He asked Holika, his sister, who had been made immune to flames by the Gods, to kill Prahalad by sitting with him in a fire. But when she did so her magic powers were taken away and her nephew was saved, while she burned to ashes.
A bonfire was made at the event in celebration of the story and offerings of coconuts, dates and popcorn were put on it.
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