Holi is actually a religious spring festival celebrated by Hindus. Holi is also known as festival of Colors. It is primarily observed in India, Nepal and countries with large Indic diaspora populations following Hinduism, such as Suriname, Malaysia, Guyana, South Africa, Trinidad, United Kingdom, United States, Mauritius, and Fiji. 8th March 2012 is the day when Holi will be celebrated this year. Travellingcamera is again going to some of the interesting Holi Fairs to bring back new favors of this colorful festival. For now, let's have this Photo Journey to know more about this festival and things people prefer to do during the day....
It is also known as Dolajata in Orissa and Dol Jatra, Basantotsav in West Bengal. The most celebrated Holi is in the Braj region, in locations connected to the Lord Krishna: Mathura, Vrindavan, Nandagaon, and Barsana. These places have become tourist destinations during the festive season of Holi. Lot of Photographers visit Nandgaon during Holi and we shall share some of the brilliant Photographs from this place soon... The second photograph above is intermediate state, when some of the folks prefer to keep washing their face to avoid think layers of color, although that never helps :)
Holi is celebrated at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month Phalguna, which usually falls in the later part of February or March. In 2012, Holi is on March 8th and Holika Dahan is on March 7th..Holi is famous as Basant Utsav in rural India... It is one of the major festivals in India and is celebrated with extreme enthusiasm and joy, which can be explained in words...
Originally Holi Festival was a festival that commemorated good harvests and the fertile land. In addition to celebrating the coming of spring, Holi has even greater purposes. Hindus believe it is a time of enjoying spring's abundant colors and saying farewell to winter. Furthermore, Holi celebrates many religious myths and legends.
The spring season during which the weather changes, is believed to cause viral fever and cold. The playful throwing of natural colored powders has a medicinal significance: the colors are traditionally made of Neem, Kumkum, Haldi, Bilva and other medicinal herbs prescribed by Āyurvedic doctors.
A special drink called thandai is prepared sometimes containing bhang (Cannabis indica). For wet colours, traditional flowers of Palash are boiled and soaked in water over night to produced yellow colored water, which also had medicinal properties. Unfortunately the commercial aspect of celebration has led to an increase in the use of synthetic colors which, in some cases, may be toxic. All these synthetic colors can badly impact the environment as we notice during Diwali Celebrations.
Folks having camel ride after colorbath of holi...
Above Photograph was clicked at Chandigarh last year. By looking at electrifying crowd in the city, I realized that lot of folks from Punjab and other places come to Chandigarh for celebrating colors on the special day of Holi...
How does it matter if they danced on a road-side or in a decent club... If clubs were full, why not utilize car speakers to have some thumkas on "Rang Barse Bheege T-Shirt Vaali, Rang Barse...." etc... This photographh shows some of the folks enjoying near Sukhna Lake and Rock Garden of Chandiagrh..
Some of the Indians need to go for their official duties but that's not the excuse to not take the holy color-bath...
Holi is one of the major festival of India and is the most vibrant one... The joys of Holi knows no bound and sometimes that becomes a problem as well... The festival is celebrated across most of the states in India or rather across the globe... The festival is filled with so much fun that the very mention of the word 'Holi' draws smile and enthusiasm amongst the people... Holi also celebrates the arrival of Spring, a season of joy and hope...
What is remarkably same across the country is the spirit of Holi.... Fun, love and strength of relations marks this festival of colors... What more can be expected - when the people get a social sanction to get intoxicated on the bhang, open not just their hearts out but also their lungs. n no one is allowed to take offence.. 'Bura na mano Holi hai'
Holi is one of the oldest festivals of India... There are many interesting stories associated with Holi festival's origin as one moves across the different states from North to South and East to West... Mythology plays a very important part in narrating the festival of Holi as it happens with most of the festivals of India... The most popular stories of Holi origin relates to 'Holika Dahan' and Legend of Radha-Krishan...
There is nothing right or wrong but its always advisable to play safe on these festivals ... Festivals are to enjoy and not to take risks for fun...
There is a Sikh festival of Hola Mohalla... Hola takes place on the first of the lunar month of Chet which usually falls in March. By a tradition established by Guru Gobind Singh, Hola is the masculine form of the feminine sounding Holi. The word "Mohalla" is derived from the Arabic root hal (alighting, descending) and is a Punjabi word that implies an organized procession in the form of an army column. But unlike Holi, when people playfully sprinkle colored powder, dry or mixed in water, on each other, the Guru made Hola Mohalla an occasion for the Sikhs to demonstrate their martial skills in simulated battles.
For children, Holi starts one week before as they have to do lot of sopping which includes pichkaris, dry color, color-sprays and color-powder to mix with water.. n how can I forget balloons to target people walking on the road...
Why can't cars enjoy this festival.. Holi Hai !!!
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