Holi – India’s Festival of vibrant colors

Devotees smeared with color celebrate Holi, the Hindu festival of color Colors will fill the atmosphere as people throw abeer and gulal in the air – showing great joy and mirth in the arrival of this Spring Festival.

Holi marks the end of the winter gloom and rejoices in the bloom of the springtime. It is the best time and the best season to celebrate; Holi provides this opportunity and people take every advantage of it.

Days before Holi, the markets become flooded with colors of every hue. This aptly sets the mood of the people until the actual day of Holi.

It is such a colorful and joyous sight to watch huge piles of bright red, magenta, pink, green and blue everywhere on the streets.

Buying those colors makes it seem as if you are bringing joy and color into your home and into your life.

Children take special delight in the festival and demand every color in cartloads. They have so many plans in their mind.

They have to be the first to apply color to Mama, Papa, siblings or a big bunch of friends. Nobody could miss being colored by them, and of course, for that, they need color.

These days, it is easy to buy colors from the market but still, some people do take up the task of making colors at home, usually from flowers of tesu and palash.

These homemade colors have a special fragrance of love in them.

The other option is to buy gulal, which comes in bright shades of pink, magenta, red, yellow and green. ‘Abeer’ is made of small crystals or paper, similar to chips of mica. This is mixed with the gulal to create a rich shine.

Mischievous ones, however, go for silver and gold paints, upon which no color could be applied.

Whatever be the choice of color, nobody remains in his or her original texture by the end of the play. And everybody takes delight looking at the one another. Really, the other name of this festival is FUN.

And it is not just children, but also the young and the old alike, who take delight in this joyous festival of color. Seniors too, move in their tolis.

Their enthusiasm is at times greater than that of their children, as they forget the bars of age and follow their hearts.

For youth, holi offers a chance to explore the heights of enthusiasm, as they climb the human pyramids to break the pot of buttermilk and to express their love for their beloved by applying color.