Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\nEveryone is fair game: parents get their kids, kids get parents \u2013 even grandparents have gulal poured over their heads.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s joyful and full of laughter, and the colours, a herbal mixture made from flowers, fill the air with a sweet smell.<\/p>\n
Parramatta is home to a large Indian population, and locals have been putting on the Holi event for 15 years.<\/p>\n
Holi celebrates the triumph of good over evil. Photograph: Jessica Hromas\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Swechha Kulshrestha, one of the organisers, says Holi originated as a Hindu tradition in India and is now celebrated around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe basic thing, which everybody can understand is good winning over evil \u2026 this is where Holi comes from.\u201d<\/p>\n
The festival is said to get its name from Holika, the sister of the ancient demon king, Hiranyakashipu. Hiranyakashipu enlisted Holika to kill his son, Prahlada, a devoted worshipper of the god Vishnu.<\/p>\n
Holika tried to burn Prahlada while wearing a cloak that protected her from the flames. But the cloak slipped on to Prahlada to protect him and Holika burned. Vishnu then killed Hiranyakashipu.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we celebrate the killing of evil, with colours,\u201d Kulshrestha says.<\/p>\n
Vishal Jani is celebrating with his friends. They are part of a large group jumping, dancing and singing to the music.<\/p>\n
He uses his bag of red powder to mark everyone around him on the forehead, trailing down to the nose.<\/p>\n
\u201cHoli is happiness,\u201d Jani says. \u201cWe stop the negativity and make things positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Dom\u2019s first time celebrating Holi, but with a bag of orange powder in hand, he looks like a seasoned pro.<\/p>\n
\u201cHappy Holi,\u201d he says, throwing a handful, dusting everyone around him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m having so much fun; my favourite part is definitely throwing the colour.\u201d<\/p>\n
His friend, Saraansh, who also did not want to give his last name, has been to many Holi events before.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy favourite part is the water,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Water fights are part of the festivities. There are water buckets mixed with colour and water guns spread out across the venue.<\/p>\n
Orange dust surrounds two festival-goers. Photograph: Jessica Hromas\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Neha Sharma, one of the hosts of the event, reminisces about gujiya, a fried dumpling with a sweet filling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose who are brought up in India grow up making gujiya at Holi,\u201d Sharma says. \u201cThose were amazing times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another host, Bhavika Darji, remembers growing up celebrating Holi with a fire.<\/p>\n
People enjoy throwing colored dye. Photograph: Jessica Hromas\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father would take a coconut from our house, and I remember throwing it into the bonfire,\u201d she says. \u201cThat coconut symbolises ego, we would burn our ego, all the negativity, all our wrongdoings.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat would be left would be a lovely, soft centre, that is the divine part of the coconut. We would then eat that coconut and purify our bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seewaa Seth stands on the outskirts of the moving crowd with a beaming smile. \u201cHappy Holi!\u201d she says, smearing blue on to the arms of those around her.<\/p>\n
Seth is Fijian Indian and a Parramatta local who migrated to Australia in 2005.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t see this scale of Holi in Fiji,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s really great to see here \u2026 it\u2019s so bright.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sharm says: \u201cThe Bollywood dance, culture and performances \u2026 people throwing colour at each other and dancing a lot. People loosen up a bit in this world, which is full of stress these days.\u201d<\/p>\n
At midday, it starts raining but that doesn\u2019t stop the celebrations. Some hold out their arms and look to the sky.<\/p>\n
\u201cHinduism is a belief in flexibility and changing over time,\u201d Kulshrestha says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe it means every atom of the universe must be in harmony \u2026 so if every atom, even trees, the sky, the Earth, is in harmony, we\u2019ll be in harmony.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s 10.30 on Sunday morning in Sydney\u2019s Parramatta, and things are about to get messy. Trestle tables set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-529093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}