Pres Ali urges unity as Guyana celebrates Phagwah 2026

– says beneath the powder “We are one”

As Guyanese especially Hindus across Guyana celebrate the festival of colours, President Dr Irfaan Ali has called on the nation to celebrate as ‘one’ reiterating that despite the many colours that will fill the air and cover the skin, we must stand united as ‘one people’.
“This year, as we celebrate, let us carry that invitation forward into every day that follows. Let us build a Guyana where the colour of a child’s skin matters less than the colour of their dreams. Where the texture of their hair is not a measure of their worth, but simply part of the infinite variety of human beauty. Where their religion is a path they walk in peace, and their class is not a cage but a circumstance that can be transcended.
Let us work to build a Guyana where every single person, whether they worship in a mandir, a mosque, a church, or only in the cathedral of their own quiet heart, can stand in the sunlight and say: “Here, I belong. Here, I can become.”
This is not a small dream. It is the largest dream there is. It is the dream for which our ancestors struggled, for which they laboured and wept and hoped,” the Head of State in his Phagwah message stated.
In his message to the nation, he stated that there is a moment, just before dawn breaks over Guyana, when the world holds its breath.
“The cane fields whisper in the darkness, the rivers glide silently toward the sea, and somewhere in the distance, the first sounds of life’s rustling begin to stir. This is the threshold between night and morning, between darkness and light, between the old self and the new… On this sacred morning of Phagwah, I stand with you at that threshold.”
He commended the Hindu community for keeping the festival exuberant, colourful, and alive across generations.
“I offer more than greetings; I offer gratitude. You have taught us that Holi is not merely a celebration but a revelation: that good shall always triumph over evil, that the soul, like the earth itself, must be renewed and reborn with each passing season.
Further, he welcomes Guyanese retuning home and visitors who have journeyed from distant shores to the land of cultural explosion.
“You are not visitors here. You are like the returning tide, the branches of the great tree bending back toward its roots. Your presence completes our circle.”
He added that the colours of Phagwah remain rich in meaning. “Is it not the same red that runs through every human vein, whether Hindu or Christian, Muslim or Indigenous, African or Indian or Chinese or Portuguese?”
“The blue that clings to our skin—is it not the same blue that arches over every Guyanese head, from the Rupununi savannahs to the Atlaantic shore? The yellow, the green, the pink, the purple—they are not divisions. They are revelations. They are the visible proof that beauty lies not in uniformity, but in the glorious, joyful mingling of difference.”
President Ali further stated, “When we gather in the streets to celebrate this joyous festival, when we chase each other with abrack and water, when laughter rises like incense from every home and village road, we are not merely playing.”
Instead, he noted that the nation is performing a sacred truth – that beneath the powder, beneath the skin, beneath every label the world has taught us to wear, we are one.
That, he noted is the significance of Holi. “It does not ask for your beliefs. It simply invites you to belong.”
“Happy Phagwah to all. May your lives be drenched in joy, may your hearts be filled with love, and may the Guyana we build together be worthy of the beauty we create today.”