What is Holi (festival of colors)?
Holi – the festival of colors – is undoubtedly the most fun-filled Hindu festival. Every year it is celebrated on the day after the full moon in early March and glorifies good harvest and fertility of the land. On the eve people celebrate by lighting huge bonfires as part of the community celebration and gather near the fire to fill the air with folk songs and dances. During Holi, squirting colored water on passers-by, dunking friends in mud pools amidst teasing and laughter, getting intoxicated on bhaang and reveling with companions is perfectly acceptable. In fact, on the days of Holi, you can get away with almost anything by saying, “Don’t mind, it’s Holi!” Draped in white, people throng the streets in large numbers and smear each other with bright hued powders and squirt colored water on one another, irrespective of caste, color, race, sex, or social status; all these petty differences are temporarily relegated to the background and people give into an unalloyed colorful rebellion.
