Guyana is among the culturally fascinating countries where it is possible to have, in the same week, two separate holidays and a spiritual observance sacred to three different religions. This happened last week. Signifi-cantly, the whole week was observed by Christians as Holy Week and by a confluence of the calendars, the Hindu Festival of Phagwah or Holi was celebrated on Monday, while Friday was the very important Good Friday in the Christian Festival of Easter. Both of these occurred while Muslims are also observing the holy month of Ramadan.
It is further interesting to note that Phagwah Day last Monday was really the culmination of the Holi/Phagwah season, which actually began with religious ritual observations 40 days before. During that period of 40 days the activities involved spiritual practices as well as Spring festivities: Chowtal singing, music and dance.
Easter, too, comes at the end of a 40-day period which begins each year with Ash Wednesday. Christians then observe the period of Lent, which comes to an end on Good Friday. That is also the end of Holy Week which leads into Easter Sunday, the day of the resurrection.
