Thursday, March 28, 2024

Holi Week?

On Holy Tuesday, one of our Concordia Universities celebrated the Hindu festival Holi.  [The post has been removed without comment.]

It seems that “the origin of the festival is traced in Hindu mythology legends, one of which tells the story of a female demon, Holika, and her brother, King Hiranyakashipu.”



Holi has an entry at Wikipedia. It "
celebrates the eternal and divine love of the deities Radha and Krishna. Additionally, the day signifies the triumph of good over evil, as it commemorates the victory of Vishnu as Narasimha over Hiranyakashipu.


Here are the Wikipedia links to those commemorated by this festival:

Krishna (/ˈkrɪʃnə/; Sanskrit: कृष्ण, IAST: Kṛṣṇa [ˈkr̩ʂɳɐ]) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is widely revered among Hindu divinities. Krishna's birthday is celebrated every year by Hindus on Krishna Janmashtami according to the lunisolar Hindu calendar, which falls in late August or early September of the Gregorian calendar.



Radha (Sanskrit: राधा, IAST: Rādhā), also called Radhika, is a Hindu goddess and the chief consort of the god Krishna. She is the goddess of love, tenderness, compassion, and devotion. In scriptures, Radha is mentioned as the avatar of Lakshmi and also as the Mūlaprakriti, the Supreme goddess, who is the feminine counterpart and internal potency (hladini shakti) of Krishna. Radha accompanies Krishna in all his incarnations. Radha's birthday is celebrated every year on the occasion of Radhashtami.



Vishnu (/ˈvɪʃnuː/ VISH-noo; Sanskrit: विष्णु, lit. 'The Pervader', IAST: Viṣṇu, pronounced [ʋɪʂɳʊ]), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism.



Narasimha (Sanskrit: नरसिंह, lit. 'man-lion', IAST: Narasiṃha), sometimes rendered Narasingha, is the fourth avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. He is believed to have incarnated in the form of a part-lion, part-man being to kill Hiranyakashipu, to end religious persecution and calamity on earth, thereby restoring dharma. Narasimha is often depicted with three eyes, and is described in Vaishnavism to be the God of Destruction; he who destroys the entire universe at the time of the great dissolution (Mahapralaya). Hence, he is known as Kala (time) or Mahakala (great-time), or Parakala (beyond time) in his epithets. There exists a matha (monastery) dedicated to him by the name of Parakala Matha at Mysuru in the Sri Vaishnava tradition. Narasimha is also described as the God of Yoga, in the form of Yoga-Narasimha.



Hiranyakashipu (Sanskrit: हिरण्यकशिपु, IAST: Hiraṇyakaśipu), also known as Hiranyakashyap, was a daitya king of the asuras in the Puranas.

In Hindu mythology, Hiranyakashipu's younger brother, Hiranyaksha, was slain by the Varaha (wild boar) avatar of Vishnu. Angered by this, Hiranyakashipu decided to gain a boon of invulnerability by performing tapas to propitiate Brahma. After his subjugation of the three worlds, he was slain by the Narasimha (man-lion) avatar of Vishnu.



Holika (Sanskrit: होलिका, romanizedHōlikā), also known as Simhika, is an asuri in Hinduism. She is the sister of the asura-kings Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha, and the paternal aunt of Prahlada.

The legend of Holika Dahan (Holika's burning) signifies the triumph of righteousness over sin. Holika is associated with the annual bonfire on the night before Holi, the festival of colours.



Concordia University Wisconsin is the university that suspended and banned CUW professor the Rev. Dr. Gregory Schulz for calling out the university's problem with wokeness.  As of today, Dr. Schulz has been suspended and prohibited from teaching any of his classes - though with full salary - for more than two years.

The best construction is that the university's International Center is ignorant of what Holi is all about.  And that is a terrible thing.  It shows that in spite of all the talk of "Lutheran Identity," we can see how important it really is in practice.  Sadly, this confusing celebration during Christian Holy Week vindicates Dr. Schulz.  And as we have seen some five Concordia universities fall in recent years - beginning with the most "woke" first, one can only pray that God will be merciful and spare this university (and our synod), and that those in charge of CUW will lead the university away from wokeness and cultural syncretism back to a clear Christian confession within our Lutheran tradition.

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