What is Holi, the Hindu festival of colors and how is it celebrated? https://t.co/mkGo53fWlf
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 22, 2024
Sounds like a pretty good Monday to me… “What is Holi, the Hindu festival of colors and how is it celebrated?”:
… Typically observed in March in India, Nepal, other South Asian countries and across the diaspora, the festival celebrates love and signifies a time of rebirth and rejuvenation — a time to embrace the positive and let go of negative energy.
For one of Holi’s most well-known traditions, celebrants clad in all white, come out to the street and throw colored powders at each other, leaving behind a kaleidoscope of pigments and joy. Festivities with music, dancing and food ensue.
Holi is celebrated at the end of winter and the beginning of spring, on the last full moon day of the Hindu luni-solar calendar month of Falgun. The date of the festival varies depending on the lunar cycle. Typically, it falls in March, and will be celebrated this year on March 25…
In many parts of India, people light large bonfires the night before the festival to signify the destruction of evil and victory of good.
On the day of Holi, entire streets and towns are filled with people who throw colored powder in the air. Some fling balloons filled with colored water from rooftops and others use squirt guns. For one day, it’s all fair game. Cries of “Holi hai!” which means “It’s Holi!” can be heard on the streets. Holi has also been romanticized and popularized over the decades in Bollywood films.
The colors seen during Holi symbolize different things. Blue represents the color of Lord Krishna’s skin while green symbolizes spring and rebirth. Red symbolizes marriage or fertility while both red and yellow — commonly used in ritual and ceremony — symbolize auspiciousness.
An array of special foods are part of the celebration, with the most popular food during Holi being “gujia,” a flaky, deep-fried sweet pastry stuffed with milk curd, nuts and dried fruits. Holi parties also feature “thandai,” a cold drink prepared with a mix of almonds, fennel seeds, rose petals, poppy seeds, saffron, milk and sugar…
Lots of Americans are hoping for a somewhat different celebration…