Holi, Holi, Holi– I escaped being Holi’ed:
on Jen's Indian Adventure (India), 03/Mar/2010 05:38, 34 days ago
The colorful festival of Holi is celebrated on Phalgun Purnima which comes in late February or early March. This year it was on 1stMarch in most ofIndia, but it was celebrated on 28thFebruary in the state ofWest Bengal(Kolkata) which we discovered only when we arrived there.Holi festival has an ancient origin and celebrates the triumph of 'good' over 'bad'. The colorful festival is meant to bridge the social gap and renew relationships. On this day, people hug and wish each other 'Happy Holi'.If only it were that simple !There are many explanations as to when or where this festival started and it can be traced in some places back to B.C. The most widely accepted modern-day explanation is thelegend of Lord Krishna who is said to have started the tradition of playing with colours by applying colour on his beloved Radha. Gradually, the play gained popularity with the people and became a tradition.It’s called the festival of colour for a reason. People throw paint at each other and complete strangers. Neighbours usually agree to ‘play’ Holi in plenty of time before the day itself. There is big revenue to be earned in the sale of paint and water pistols in the week or so leading up to Holi.My original plan was to hide for the day when I heard about this festival, but then my flat mate and I planned our weekend in Kolkata. Accepting that there was no way to avoid Holi then– 2 foreign women walking down the streets were bound to be a popular target – I accepted my fate and bought a plain white t-shirt.One of my Indian colleagues had us pre-warned that the paint is difficult to get off and can often stay on your skin for days afterwards, so recommended we buy baby oil before venturing out into the unknown. I did what I was told but by the end of the day the result for me was my lovely, traditional farmer’s tan !As it turned out it was not quite as mad as anticipated. We went out into the streets of Kolkata on Sunday morning, wearing white t-shirts, to come upon a group that were truly celebrating Holi– there was paint and water everywhere. They even had some music and drummers to throw paint to. But I decided to stay back a bit and watch for a while amongst a group of photographers which was to my surprise respected. At one time a young boy came over with paint in his hand and gestured to askif he could rub it on my face. I hadn’t realized at the time that this must be how it starts. But not really wanting to have to scrub my face for the next three days I offered him my t-shirt instead, but he politely declined. It was only afterwards that I realized he did not want to touch a woman(and of course, traditionally could not).I was relieved not to have to been covered head to toe in paint, but in a way a little disappointed that I don’t have a multi-coloured t-shirt as a memory of the day.The guest house in which we stayed in Kolkata had a very interesting sign on their front door in time for the celebrations. Were residents meant to arrive back without their clothes ?!