Springtime Hues

Holi is celebrated at the end of winter, on the last full moon of Phalguna, the twelfth month of the Hindu calendar. This is a time of joy and merrymaking, and revellers, particularly in North India, give thanks for a good harvest. Also called the Spring Festival, Holi celebrates the arrival of this season of hope and vitality.

The festival is also celebrated on a grand scale in East India, especially in West Bengal where it is called Basanta Utsav or Dol Utsav. Shantiniketan, home of Rabindranath Tagore, draws people from all across the world during this colourful celebration.

Holika Dahan, which falls on the eve of Holi, celebrates the victory of good over evil. According to legend, the demon king Hiranyakashipu demanded that his son, Prahlada, who was a faithful devotee of Lord Vishnu, worship him instead. When Prahlada refused, Hiranyakashipu decided to kill his son with the help of his sister, Holika, who was impervious to fire. When Holika tricked Prahlada into sitting on a pyre with her, the plot failed as Prahlada was protected by Lord Vishnu, while Holika was consumed by the flames instead. This symbolic triumph of good over evil is commemorated with the lighting of bonfires, a ritual cleansing to ward off evil spirits.

Today, the image of revellers spraying each other in coloured powder has become iconic of Holi. In Mathura and Vrindavan (birth place and childhood home of Lord Krishna respectively) in Uttar Pradesh, festivities last for 16 days.

Heralding spring and all the joy it brings, Holi is a time for fragrant blooms, new life and for many, a fresh start, as past wrongs are pardoned and feuds forgotten.

A dance troupe from Jaipur, Rajasthan, performs scenes from the Krishna-leela, tales from Hindu scriptures like the Bhagavata Purana, Mahabharata and the Geeta Govinda that chronicle the life of Lord Krishna.

Celebrating the beginning of spring, revellers sing bhajans (devotional songs) dedicated to Lord Krishna and his consort, Radha, as they dance in swirls of colour during Holi.

Holi also finds roots in a legend that speaks of the eternal love between Lord Krishna and his beloved Radha. Krishna was concerned that his blue complexion would not appeal to Radha, but his mother explained that their differences were merely superficial and suggested that he colour Radha’s face any colour he desired. Thus, began this tale of divine love. The playful image of Krishna spraying Radha with coloured water using a pichkari (watergun) has been immortalised in many artworks. The act of colouring each other takes on a deeper meaning when, on the second day of Holi, Hindus spray each other with coloured powders in a celebration of unity, tolerance and peace, commemorating the story of Krishna and Radha.

During Lathmar Holi, a unique local celebration held in the grounds of the Radha Rani temple in Barsana, Uttar Pradesh, men from Nandgaon (the town where Lord Krishna was born) tease local women by singing provocative songs, earning themselves a playful thrashing. The age-old festival draws thousands of locals and tourists who come to witness local women beating men with bamboo sticks called lathis in a re-enactment of how the womenfolk in Radha’s hometown chased the mischievous Lord Krishna away for teasing his consort and her friends and splashing them with coloured water.

In the early days, the coloured powder solutions or gulal that revellers threw on one another were made of natural substances, for example flame of the forest that imparted a saffron hue. Now, there’s a profusion of synthetic colours available, as well as innovative pichkaris. In India, red is associated with matrimony, fertility and love; yellow with auspicious occasions; blue with Lord Krishna; and green with harvests and new beginnings. The riot of colours today sees Holi take on a psychedelic glow.