Spring is round the corner, and we people in India get zealous and all set in a mood of festivity. The winters slowly fade away, and spring season is the beautiful bridge we have as we approach towards summer. All yellowy, orangey and peachy we become as if these colors become the blush of our cheeks. The enthusiasm prevails and ‘Basant’ (spring season) is welcomed with mighty celebrations. The greatest festival we look forward for, in this season is Holi. Celebrated all over India unanimously, in the last week of Feb or starting week of March, still hold contrast in different states in terms of the rituals and ways of celebration. Rajasthan has its own way to celebrate Holi.

A week before Holi is all spent in its preparations. The local Bazaars are perfectly, colorfully decked up. The different hues paint the town in all colors, making it so vibrant and gleeful and why not, this is the soul of Holi festival. The giant tubes called pichkaris are the staple toys for the juniors here. They some how relate that this big syringe is the only way to do all the pranks on Holi. There tiny imaginations want to soar high like a kite, but somehow the bony skull cage does not allow that and then they rely on these pichkaris to fulfill their goofy pranks on people. Smarter lot among these kids somehow graduated and came up with something like throwing water or colored water filled balloons on people walking on the streets. Once, when I was on the way to work, this frail child came from behind and banged a water filled balloon on my back. Aarrrrrggghhh!! I turned back furiously, but this kid started dancing in front of me and singing “Bura na mano,Holi hai”(Don’t get offended, its Holi). And I just left, having a smile on my face.
While children are all dutifully doing their job of pranksters, the housewives are all busy doing shopping and preparing the lip smacking snacks for the big day. Gujiyas, potato chips, Dahi Bada, kanji, mathri and different kinds of sweets etc are prepared at home. To bypass all the labor that goes into the preparations of these goodies, some prefer buying them from the market, and then that is how the business of food stores flourish. The sweet shops are filled with the savories and sold at quiet a high price. But then who cares, we just need to enjoy. Right!!!

The celebration is for two days mainly in Northern part of India (still each state have there cultural diversification). Before the main Holi, we celebrate Choti Holi (like a mini celebration) where a Bon Fire is created accompanied by singing and dancing. The significant historical tale goes like this ~ In some mythological epic, Hiranyakashipu, who was a demon, was blessed by God Brahma, that almost made it impossible to kill him. He offered a long penance, to be blessed by God and had demanded that he not be killed “during day or night; inside the home or outside, not on earth or on sky; neither by a man nor an animal; neither by astra nor by shastra (weapons)”. All this turned him arrogant and bighead, he attacked the Heavens and the Earth demanding that people should stop worshiping gods but worship him.

Hiranyakashipu’s own son Prahlada, did not listen to him, he worshipped Lord Vishnu. Prahlada continued offering prayers to Lord Vishnu despite all the threatening from his father. He was poisoned but the poison turned to nectar in his mouth, tried, trampled by elephants yet remained unharmed, was put in a room of poisonous snakes still survived. In nutshell his dad failed. The final attempt was a bad plan when he asked young Prahlada to sit in the lap of demon’s sister, Holika, (who could not die from fire by virtue of a shawl) and Holika sat on a pile of wood that was to be set on fire. Prahlada readily accepted his father’s orders, but prayed to Vishnu to keep him safe. But when the fire started, the shawl flew from Holika, and moved to cover Prahlada. The burning of Holika is celebrated as Holi. Which is, ‘victory of Good over Evil.’

Later Lord Vishnu came in the form of a Narasimha (who is half-man and half-lion) to take a revenge from Hiranyakashipu at dusk (which was neither day nor night), on the steps of the porch of his house (which was neither inside the house nor outside) by restraining him on his lap (which is neither in the sky nor on the earth) and mauling him with his claws (which are neither astra nor shastra).

Thus, this Goodness is celebrated in form of Badi Holi (big celebration). The colors are the celebrities. Everyone wears white clothes, making an amazingly generous background for the colors to show off their brightness. The powder color is used to color your loved ones, while the more playful and enthusiastic lot (mostly the young generation) mix the color with water to throw onto each other. This may sound messy, but its fun, really.
It is a real special day for people who are in love. The newly wed duo waits for the day. The man generally tries to put on color to his new wife, and the lady shy away, resisting the husband, finally give into the colorful play. Sounds too sweet!! Its sort of Indian valentine, I suppose. Well this also has it’s own history ~ Lord Krishna is believed to have hyped the festival by playing pranks on the girls of his village. Krishna once complained to his mother about the contrast between his dark skin complexion and Radha’s (who was supposed to be his beloved) fair skin complexion. Krishna’s mother applied color to Radha’s face. The celebrations officially usher in spring, the celebrated season of love.

When we were kids, this festival had its own charisma. All the friends came over calling us at our home, Mom scolding not to dirty the house, and eventually kicked us out of the house; supposedly the other mom’s did the same with their kid that’s why we were all out in groups. In the middle of the road, we put colors on to each other, soaked in watercolors sprayed by pichkari’s, threw color on other people, and nobody was offended, all smiled and put color on our cheeks. The whole afternoon goes by like this only and then when hunger pangs start to hurt our tiny stomach, we missed our homes. .

The spring season, in which the weather changes, and is a cause of many types of viral fever, flu and cold. Thus, the playful throwing of natural colored powders has a medicinal significance: the colors are traditionally made of Neem tree flowers, saffron turmeric, Bilva, and other medicinal herbs prescribed by Āyurvedic (Medicin from plants) doctors.

A special drink called thandai is prepared (commonly made of almonds, pistachios, rose petals etc), sometimes containing bhang (Cannabis sativa) which can leave you in transcendental states. For wet colours, traditional flowers of Palash are boiled and soaked in water over night to produced yellow coloured water, which also had medicinal properties. Unfortunately the commercial aspect of celebration has led to an increase in the use of synthetic colors, which in some cases may be toxic.

Tips – If you are traveling India during this time of the year, do participate in Holi celebrations, but a caution attached, be in your groups or better still be with a Indian family who can allow you to celebrate with them. Beware of synthetic colors. They can be harmful to the skin. Stick to the dry colors as they can be easily be taken off. And don’t roam alone in the city, whichever city you are in, as bad elements are always there, and celebration spoil them more, so don’t give anybody a chance to make it nasty for you. Enjoy and be safe.

Photo credit: Wikipedia