Holi

Practice

Holi is undoubtedly the most colourful of multi-hued India's many-splendoured festivals. It celebrates the arrival of spring and although, associated with a tale from Hindu mythology, invites wholehearted participation from all religious communities. Indeed, Holi is marked by a remarkable degree of breaking down of the many barriers that divide Indian society. Holi is celebrated all over northern India.

On the day of Holi, people greet each other with colour. This greeting can vary in form and vigour from gentle smearing of colour powder on the face to liberal spraying of coloured water all over the body and forcible dunking in ponds and puddles. It is also the tradition on Holi for people to consume the intoxicant bhang in a variety of forms -- it is mixed with other vegetables and deep-fried with a crust of dough to be eaten as pakoras or ground and mixed into a drink of milk, sugar and almonds.

The net result is that in the forenoon of Holi, people go around in a state of exhilaration, displaying all the colours of the rainbow, greeting friends and even foes and total strangers with colour and good cheer, forgetting for the day the bitterness and hardship of life. Ordinary village folk dance and sing and generally celebrate life. An interesting aspect of Holi is the remarkable degree of freedom it gives for men and women to step outside the boundaries of traditional, 'hands-off' norms of social interaction.

In certain parts of north India, this extends to the womenfolk thrashing their male relatives after, and in return for, being drubbed with colour. Regrettably, Holi is also accompanied by stray reports of abuse of this freedom. On the eve of holi, it is the practice to light a bonfire. The fire is associated with the fate of demoness Holika who tried to burn Lord Vishnu's devotee, young Prahlad, but ended up being devoured by the fire herself.

Time: March

Place:North and East India.