My hometown, Karachi, is a diverse city, full of people from different ethnic backgrounds and cultures. Ethnic identities are maintained through festivals, religious gatherings, and other community celebrations. This year, for the first time in its history, the Sindh government marked a religious festival of the Hindu community as a public holiday. The occasion was Holi.

Holi celebrates the arrival of spring. Celebrations are spread out over a span of two to five days. They begin the night before Holi and involve people gathering, performing religious rituals in front of a Holika bonfire, and praying that their internal evil will be destroyed.

Since this was the first year that such a gesture had been made on the government’s part, which represents a stepping stone toward acceptance of other religious traditions among the people of Karachi, it is not surprising to note that Holi has not been celebrated as publicly as other community celebrations, such as Eid. They are mostly restricted to private residencies or areas where Hindus make up a majority of the residents. Therefore, many people are not aware of such celebrations. However, I'm confident that Holi among other religious traditions will soon be more widely accepted and adopted into Pakistani culture.