Holi is the festival of colors of India. It is meant to welcome spring and win the blessings of Gods for good harvests and fertility of the land.Second most important festival after Diwali, it is celebrated with lots of fun and exuberance. Everywhere you go, you see people painted and powdered in the most vivid palette of colors. And I mean vivid!
These are some of the colored powders used. In old times, they used to be all natural. Nowadays, some are very toxic, and actually, there are casualties every year - kids burned by the chemicals in the colors. But when done with natural colors, there is no danger whatsoever.We celebrated Holi in Goa, in the rain (found myself with a throat infection a few days later), and once we got over the initial shyness (do I or do I not throw this very pink color on my husband's clean linen shirt? If I do, he's bound to retaliate, and my cream-colored pants and T-shirt will be ruined), boy, did we have fun.
Here we are, the girls and I, soaking wet and, as a tourist put it when he saw me coming out of the bathroom with my youngest daughter after I washed her face because powder had gotten in her eyes : "Wow, you are... colorful !"
But of course ! It was Holi !
5 comments:
I love Goa I'm writing a short story set in India, and your pics take me back!
Yes, Goa is lovely. The very strong Portuguese influence is felt everywhere, and yet, it is in India. It's the kind of place where mixed people like us are bound to feel comfortable.
Oups, where are my manners? Thank you, Emily, for visiting my blog :)
What a great picture of you and your girls! And what a fun holiday. I think everyone should celebrate it.
Sue
Hey, Sue, thanks for stopping by. How are you? Yes, celebrating Holi is a lot of fun :) Hope the book launching is still going strong. You'll have to tell me about it.
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