From Friday 14th March to Sunday 16th March, the streets of India turn into colour! It is also known as a ‘Colour Festival’, which is a Hindu festival celebrating spring, love and new beginnings, marked by throwing coloured powder and dancing, dancing and singing.
To my shock, on the first night of Holi, people lit bonfires which is also known as Holika Dahan, despite the climate being so hot and dry I will say police were everywhere making sure it was under control don’t panic it’s not a Walthambury Fire! The reason why this happens is to symbolize the triumph of good over evil, specifically the story of Prahlad and the demoness Holika, and to burn away negativity and welcome the new season with positivity.
So when I got told about Holi, this is how I got described it’s where people throw paint at each other and just have fun! After I found this out I was quite excited to throw paint around the community. The only issue I face is that due to being British and a female the males enjoy throwing more paint at us than locals so they suggest not leaving my hotel or at least finding someone to play with. Of course, I went and celebrated I was very lucky that my dad had an colleague from work who had a sister local to me which allowed me to celebrate with them, while being safe of course!
I’m not going to lie, when I arrived at their house, I was so overwhelmed with people yelling Happy Holi and throwing paint at me as soon as I got out of the taxi. But soon I found their flat where they informed me this is very normal and get used to this. After being reassured, I went out with them and played Happy Holi. I had a great time throwing paint at people and just enjoyed celebrating while being part of the local culture. However, the only issue is the powered paint has yet to come out of my clothes I was not surprised after it took me two showers to scrub the paint off my arms and face. The paint has finally come out of the clothes after a long soak.
I do wish I had photos of how covered I was and the whole day but I was too scared to take my phone knowing I could get water thrown at me. Don’t think I would have been very popular with the family if I said sorry my phone doesn’t work I got it wet in a water fight!
This is an example of what people do for Holi weekend.
Here I went with my dad’s colleague from work and her sister to celebrate Holi at their friend’s house. I only got a bit of colour after it took me ages to take it off. We all did end up with colour of our faces I just seem to be the first person and the most excited over getting paint on my face!
This is what the streets looked like after the Holi weekend, it was worse but they started clearing the paint up very soon after the festival.
This was a water fight I witness when I got out of the taxi.