Happy Holi!
H A P P Y H O L I !
Holi celebrations are kicking off around India this weekend...and people are pretty excited. Holi seems to be something folks here get pretty pumped up for -- there have already been five emails sent out to various email lists wishing folks 'Happy Holi!' and it's only 12:45 on Friday afternoon. Usually, those don't start until at the earliest 3. :) So, what is Holi you might ask? Well, I don't really know (I'll find out soon!) but I do know it is called the Festival of Color and that it is pretty much one big colorful party where everybody throws and paints everybody else a whole bunch of colors....if you want more, read about it on Wikipedia. I'll also post this summary of the legend behind Holi from this site here, which does as good a job of any of describing it:
Anyway, I'm looking forward to it, and will be glad to be up here in North India for the celebration, as it is celebrated even more heartily in northern India than it is in the south (from what I read at least). We'll specifically be in Varanasi over the weekend -- which as an extremely holy city is especially a hotbed for Holi celebrating and festivities. Should be fun...and I'm going to have to make sure to try and pick up a spare t-shirt on my way out -- as I have a feeling that whatever clothing I wear on Sunday might not stay very clean!
Holi celebrations are kicking off around India this weekend...and people are pretty excited. Holi seems to be something folks here get pretty pumped up for -- there have already been five emails sent out to various email lists wishing folks 'Happy Holi!' and it's only 12:45 on Friday afternoon. Usually, those don't start until at the earliest 3. :) So, what is Holi you might ask? Well, I don't really know (I'll find out soon!) but I do know it is called the Festival of Color and that it is pretty much one big colorful party where everybody throws and paints everybody else a whole bunch of colors....if you want more, read about it on Wikipedia. I'll also post this summary of the legend behind Holi from this site here, which does as good a job of any of describing it:
"There are many legends given as the reason for celebrating ‘Holi’. There is one popular legend that is reputed to bring about the birth of ‘Holi’. It seems that long ago there was an evil king named King Hiranyakasipu. His son, prince Prahlad however was very holy and often prayed to God and this infuriated his father. One day, the wicked king ordered his sister, the demon Holika, to kill his son. The demon Holika, who was immune to fire, captured prince Prahlad and entered a fire furnace. She had done this to kill the prince, however it was her who was burnt to ashes. Prince Prahlad was safe and was not burnt at all. The legend goes that before the demon aunt died, she begged for prince Prahlad’s forgiveness and the prince forgave her and announced that her name would be remembered once a year. Thus the festival ‘Holi’ was created."
Anyway, I'm looking forward to it, and will be glad to be up here in North India for the celebration, as it is celebrated even more heartily in northern India than it is in the south (from what I read at least). We'll specifically be in Varanasi over the weekend -- which as an extremely holy city is especially a hotbed for Holi celebrating and festivities. Should be fun...and I'm going to have to make sure to try and pick up a spare t-shirt on my way out -- as I have a feeling that whatever clothing I wear on Sunday might not stay very clean!
3 comments:
Happy Holi!
Back here we call it "Thursday" and there's no paint. I'm pretty sure I work with Holika though, so today seems like a good time to burn her to ashes.
Take care of ur camera, may get clogged with color. Enjoy.
Bro yo-
COLOR Festival? Sweet holiday- bring it back to the states with you. Let's make it a Bennett tradition.
P.S. Thanks to Selin and you for all the cool India stuff- Dad has been so full of stories I can't imagine what you will have to say.
Missing you.
Love,
malden
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