As a child growing up in North
India, I vividly remember Holi, the Festival of Colours. At that age, it meant
a time when adult control over children disappeared and I could get away with all
sorts of naughty things. Taking full advantage of the opportunity, I dowsed
family members, what to speak of complete strangers, with buckets of water and
handfuls of vividly colored corn starch without fear of punishment.
Holi is a time when social barriers
of class, age and even of gender disappear and one can, under a disguise of
color, celebrate in equality.
As with most things in India, the
festival is cloaked with legends. In one, a devout young boy, Prahlad, is
tortured by his evil aunt Holika. She has the power of being unaffected by
fire. She carries the young Prahlad into a bonfire, expecting him to die, but
miraculously, he escapes harm while she is consumed. Indeed, one of the
traditions of Holi, named after Holika, is the burning of a bonfire during the
(usually) two-day festival.
Another legend has to do with Radha
and Krishna, the Divine lovers who are worshiped across the sub-continent.
Krishna, in his boyhood, would engage in any number of pranks to tease Radha,
the leader of the Gopis, the cowherd girls in the village of Vrindavan, where
they grew up. The current festival is a remembrance of those playful pastimes in
which Krishna splashed of water and threw colored flower petals at his beloved.
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| Lathmar Holi |
Interestingly, in one village called
Lathmar in the Vrindavan region, the women folk exact revenge for this teasing.
During the Lathmar Holi, the women of the town gather the men from their town
or neighboring villages and, ritually,
but gently, take sticks to their menfolk. Needless to say, the playful revenge
creates a great deal of mirth for all.
The celebration, which coincides
with the beginning of spring, is celebrated throughout India, Nepal and several
other South Asian countries. Increasingly, it is now appearing around the world
and attracts not just ethnic Indians but locals. “Color Festivals” as they are
known, are observed in many parts of Europe, Australia and the United States.
Surprisingly, one of the largest such
festivals occurs annually at a Krishna temple near Salt
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| American Festival goers in Utah |
Lake City in Utah. In
2016, an astounding thirty-five people, mostly young college students, showed
up for two days of color throwing, music and dance. Holi has become so popular
there that tour buses ply visitors from around the Western states, and being alcohol
and drug free, it suits well the local Mormon ethos, whose adherents form the
vast majority of the celebrants.
Indeed, in keeping with its original
intent, Holi is becoming a celebration observed all around the world, rising
above all human dualities, whether color, nationality, class or gender.
-Mohan Ashtakala is the author of "The Yoga Zapper," published by Books We Love. www.yogazapper.com ; bookswelove.com
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