Playing Holi

A few years ago my daughter spent some time in India and Nepal. She was there during Holi – the Hindu Festival of Colors. She knew I would love to hear about a celebration that involves throwing and squirting colors at complete strangers so she called home, a rare event, to tell me all about it.

What fun! Color everywhere you look! I asked my neighbor from India why they don’t celebrate it here in Portland.

Her answer was brief. “Too cold,” she said.

Here are two of my favorite photos that Monica took that day in Katmandu.

The most colorful site I found on Holi is Colors of India. Check out the food recipes. Yum. It also includes these recipes for making natural versions of the colors. The suggestions are poetic.

Yellow – Tumeric, Orange – Saffron, Red – Hibiscus flowers, Magenta – Beet roots, Blue – Jacaranda flowers, Green – Henna.

Oddly enough, a friend invited me over today to henna our hair. She didn’t know about Holi. Imagine my surprise when I read this tonight. . .

“Use mehendi/henna powder, separately or mix with equal quantity of any suitable flour to attain a lovely green shade. Use only pure mehendi and not the one mixed with amla (meant to be applied to our hair) as this would be brown in colour.

Dry mehendi will not leave colour on your face as it can be easily brushed off. Only when it is a paste (i.e. it is mixed in water) will it leave a slight colour on your face. Thus, it can be used as a pucca / fast colour. Many people like smearing other person’s hair with colours. How about doing it with mehendi powder and saving a trip to the parlour?”

Many thanks to Joan Bastantejg for reminding me that today was Holi.