Getting Colorful for the Festival of Holi 🌈
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The Ten News Season 3: Episode 39
🎉 Ten'er Aruna shares the history of Holi, the Spring festival of colors! 🏛️ Friends of The Ten, Hannah & Nick from Civics 101 are here to talk all things Congress 📺 Trivia with Tessa: what US Speaker of the House has been a guest judge on the hit TV show ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race?
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TRANSCRIPT:
Pamela Kirkland 0:01
Hey, Tessa, could you put these colored powders somewhere so that Ryan won't find them?
Tessa Flannery 0:08
Oh, absolutely. I'll hide them with the snacks for our Holi celebration later.
Ryan Willard 0:13
Hey, Pamela & Tessa. What you're doing? Ready to start the show?
Pamela Kirkland 0:21
Yep. I'm Pamela Kirkland.
Ryan Willard 0:23
And I'm Ryan Willard. It's Wednesday, March 8th.
Pamela Kirkland 0:26
This is The Ten News.
Sound Bit 0:31
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Ryan Willard 0:39
It feels like we should be celebrating something today. I want to throw things and dance and scream with joy.
Pamela Kirkland 0:45
The Hindu festival of Holi starts on March 8th. Holi is the Spring Festival of Colors that started in India and is celebrated around the globe.
Ryan Willard 0:56
Wait, isn't that the festival where we get to throw color powder on each other? Is that what you and Tessa were doing earlier!? Are we gonna throw color!?
Pamela Kirkland 1:05
Hold that thought, Ryan. I think we should talk to Aruna about what we're going to celebrate.
Ryan Willard 1:12
Oh, right.
Pamela Kirkland 1:15
Can you come in here for a minute?
Aruna 1:17
Yes, Pamela.
Pamela Kirkland 1:18
We want to know more about Holi.
Ryan Willard 1:20
I'm ready to shake what my mama gave me, what is happening?
Pamela Kirkland 1:23
Could you fill us in?
Aruna 1:24
Yep. Holi is a spring holiday that commemorates the triumph of good over evil, the importance of love, and the significance of play in our lives. There are different origin stories for this holiday. In one version, an evil king wanted everyone to worship him as a god, but his son the prince remained a devoted follower of the Hindu God Lord Vishnu. The king plotted with his sister Holika, who had a special power, she was immune to fire Holika trick the prince into sitting on a pile of wood with her. But when the fire was lit, Lord Vishnu came and saved the prince but took away Holcus's powers, so she burned instead, Lord Vishnu transformed into a half man, half lion, and killed the Evil King. This is why Hindus like bonfires the night before the holy. Another version is about the mischievous Hindu God, Lord Krishna. He fell in love with a beautiful human milkmaid, named of other Lord Krishna, and was embarrassed because his skin was blue. His mother told him he was silly for worrying and he should just color others'’ skin the next time lord Krishna played in dance with the milkmaids. He's your color on Robin, the other milkmaids thought it was a fun game and they threw colors and water on each other for Holi people forget about social rank and age just to have fun with our colored powder and water on each other. The colors have meanings blue for Lord Krishna, green for renewal, and red for love. It's very messy. After everyone cleans up, you put on clean new clothes and have a meal with lots of sweets. Then visit your family and friends. In my Spingarn where my dad's family is from. They celebrate the holiday doll poor nama which is very similar to Holly and is usually celebrated on the same day. There are parades with statues of Lord Krishna and Radha, people throw colors but conch shells like bonfires and eat sweets. My sister and I like to eat Indian sweets that Takuma makes for us. She is Bengali and Bengalis are famous for their desserts in India. I love to eat ras malai which are sponging dumplings and a sweet cream sauce, saffron and cardamom, and lenses, which are sweet balls made of chickpea flour and cooked in ghee or clarified butter. She also makes special drinks like Lassie or yogurt drinks. My favorite flavor is mango lassi holy is a lot of fun. The Hindu community in my town has a big party in a local park as their colors are on my friends and parents. We all end up covered in color and we laugh a lot. Celebrating Holi reminds me of India where my grandparents are from and more. I still have a family.
Pamela Kirkland 4:05
Thanks, Aruna. I love Spring festivals.
Ryan Willard 4:09
Me too. Now, where do you hide the gulal? It's about to get colorful up at the studio. Pamela, I've been thinking about Congress.
Pamela Kirkland 4:24
Yes. Ryan, what about Congress?
Ryan Willard 4:28
Well, we throw that word around a lot. But who exactly is Congress?
Pamela Kirkland 4:32
Do you mean who's in charge? Because Kevin McCarthy just took over the house as speaker from Nancy Pelosi. She was the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House and served an amazing 10 terms.
Ryan Willard 4:46
Oh, I do know that. I just need a little refresher because I get confused, didn't we get a new Congress?
Pamela Kirkland 4:53
Oh, I got it. I know the perfect people to talk to about this. Our friends Nick and Hannah from Civics 101.
Nick 5:04
Thank you, Ryan. Thank you, Pamela. It's a delight to be here with you today. Hello there Ten'ers, I'm Nick.
Hannah 5:10
And I'm Hannah.
Nick 5:11
And we host a show called Civics 101. From New Hampshire Public Radio, where we explain the absolute basics of how our government works.
Hannah 5:19
Today, we wanted to tell you all about the group of 535 people who started their job this January, the 118th United States Congress. That music is a little dramatic, Nick.
Nick 5:35
I know, but it's a big thing. Article One, which explains the role of Congress makes up about two of the four pages of the US Constitution. But before we launch into this current congress and what we can expect from it, Hannah, do you want to give everyone the lowdown on what Congress is and does?
Hannah 5:54
I absolutely do. Congress is made up of two chambers, the House of Representatives, which has 435 members, and the Senate, which has 100 members, the number of people elected to the House from your state is related to how many people live in your state, and each state elects to members to the Senate, no matter how big your state is. And they have a lot of responsibilities. But the big one is that they make the laws that affect our daily lives.
Nick 6:25
Members of the House or the Senate can propose bills, which go through a very long process before they get voted on, then go to the other chamber of Congress for the same procedure, and finally, maybe end up on the desk of the President to sign or not sign.
Hannah 6:41
Okay, Nick, what should we know about this Congress?
Nick 6:44
Well, first off, it is the most diverse Congress in US history with 133 nonwhite members and 149 women. Second, it is a very divided Congress, party-wise.
Hannah 6:58
How divided?
Nick 7:00
Well, Hannah, the Democratic Party controls the Senate, but barely it's 51 to 49. And the Republicans control the House, but it is also a squeaker 222 to 213. So to get a bill passed in the House, now the Senate is so complicated, and it's a topic for another time, in the house, you need a majority of votes. So at least 217. This means that if anyone wants to get any bills passed whatsoever, they not only have to get almost every member of their party on board but often also members of the other party.
Hannah 7:33
So this means right that even a few dissatisfied Congress, people can stop a bill from passing unless they get what they want.
Nick 7:43
Exactly. Such a tiny percentage of proposed bills actually become law anywhere from one to 4% these days. And with this extremely narrow division between the parties and Congress, we may expect it to be a record-breaking low percentage over the next two years.
Hannah 8:00
And some of our listeners think that's a bad thing. But some think it's a good thing. And that is up to you. More laws, fewer laws. What makes the country better in your opinion?
Nick 8:12
Regardless of where you stand on that. We hope you keep thinking about it. Because one day it's going to be up to you to make the decision of who gets to sit in those houses.
Ryan Willard 8:22
Okay, that makes a lot more sense. Thank you, Nick and Hannah, from Civics 101 for breaking that down for us.
Pamela Kirkland 8:27
And Ten News snaps to Nancy Pelosi for her years of service in the House of Representatives.
Tessa Flannery 8:44
Welcome to the trivia room.
Aruna 8:47
Thanks, Tessa. I'm excited to be back.
Tessa Flannery 8:49
That's awesome. Aruna. Hop on up on the trivia throne for today's trivia question. You ready?
Sound Bit 8:58
What is going on here?
Tessa Flannery 9:08
Today we talked to Nick and Hannah from Civics 101, about Congress, the person in charge of Congress's the speaker of the house. Did you know that only one US Speaker of the House has been a guest judge on the hit TV show, Ru Paul's Drag Race? Can you guess who? Is it, a) Nancy Pelosi, b) Kevin McCarthy, or c) Kamala Harris? Ten'ers, did you guess it? Aruna? What's your answer?
Aruna 9:34
Hmm. I think it's a) Nancy Pelosi.
Tessa Flannery 9:38
The answer is A! Nancy Pelosi appeared in Ru Paul's Drag Race last year as a guest judge, she encouraged viewers to vote and praised the work that contestants do on the show. Her visit to the show came at a time when several US states are passing laws limiting the rights of trans people and kids. derivatives were protesting drag events like drag queen story hour, so her support for drag performers and trans rights was important had five tenors Do you want to sit on the trivia throne and share your trivia knowledge? Visit thetennews.com/contact to get in touch and we might have you on the show!
Ryan Willard 10:19
Alright, I’m ready to eat some gujiya, and drink some lassi, but I couldn’t find the gulal.
Pamela Kirkland 10:26
Gotcha, Ry! Happy Holi!
Ryan Willard 10:30
The colors are so glorious. Happy Holi! Wait, we still have to give special Ten News snaps to one of our listeners.
Pamela Kirkland 10:37
But before we do, here's a quick note for the grown-ups.
Ryan Willard 10:41
Time for Ten News snaps.
Pamela Kirkland 10:48
We asked listeners to send us a voicemail about women who inspire them and Ten'ers Olivia sent us this message.
Ten'er 10:57
Hello, my name is Olivia. I'm eight years old. My favorite woman in history is Sally Ride, the first American woman to go into space. Thank you. Bye.
Ryan Willard 11:13
Thanks, Olivia. Sally Ride is an American hero. And thanks for listening to The Ten News. If you want to leave us a voicemail about a woman who inspires you, call 1-8-7-7-T-E-N-N-E-W-S. Ten Things You Need to Know drops every Tuesday and our in-depth reports drop every Wednesday. But if you want some bonus content, you could join the Ten'ers Club on our website or on Apple podcasts.
Pamela Kirkland 11:35
The Ten News is a coproduction of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts.
Ryan Willard 11:40
The Ten News creative team is celebrating Holi and includes Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, and Tessa Flannery. Special thanks to our kid correspondent, Aruna, and our friends Nick and Hannah at Civics 101.
Pamela Kirkland 11:53
Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle. And our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan.
Ryan Willard 12:01
I'm Ryan Willard.
Pamela Kirkland 12:02
And I'm Pamela Kirkland. Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Happy Holi!
