Eco-friendly colors for Holi

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India celebrates Holi in traditional style

IANS

Friday, 21 March, 2008

 

New Delhi/Mathura

Colours, flowers, drums, bonfires and sweets - India, the

land of festivals, is all geared up to celebrate Holi, the

festival of colours, on Saturday.

 

People in many parts of India will be going all out in a

daylong burst of revelry, playing with colours, dancing,

feasting and following it up with family get-togethers,

prayers and cultural soirees in the evening.

 

The day before the festival will see them light huge bonfires

to signify the triumph of good over evil. The festival is also

associated with harvest, fertility and lore of Lord Krishna,

Hinduism's most popular god, his consort Radha, and the

harvest season.

 

The thrust of the festival this year is on " tradition. " " We are

celebrating the festival at the community level. We will

light a bonfire and sing Holi songs, mostly traditional ones.

But we also have a band and we will perform after the

bonfire. We'll also host a little party in the night. Our

parents will organise a 'yagna' (ritual) to invoke Lord

Vishnu (another name for Lord Krishna) at night, " said

Lucky Singh, an 18-year-old aspiring musician in Delhi.

 

The spirit of Holi, say historians, are essentially colours.

Scriptures say Lord Krishna played Holi with colours made

from 'tesoo' flowers. He smeared villagers of Braj Bhumi -

the land to which he belonged to in Uttar Pradesh - with

coloured powder and sprayed fountains of red, green,

yellow and blue water till the towns of Vrindavan, Mathura,

Barsana, and Govardhan were bathed in colour.

 

Mathura and its adjoining towns that make up the Braj

Bhumi have been a melting pot of the myriad colours of

Holi and its accompanying spiritual genres for the last 5,000

years.

 

This year, the town of Baldev, nearly 20 km from Mathura,

will be the node of action for two days after the festival is

celebrated elsewhere. Krishna's elder brother Baldev or

Dauji is the presiding deity of this town and Holi here is

celebrated in a different way. Thousands of devotees, who

have flocked to Mathura and its adjacent towns, already

awash with colours and are looking forward to taking part in

" Hurang or Hudang " , a day-long carnival of songs known as

rasias sung in the local Braj Bhasa, dances and cultural

events.

 

" There is an element of mischief to it and freedom that

allows the devotee to flow along with the joyous spirit of

spring, " the priest explained. Large tanks full of 'tesoo'

flowers are processed to churn out coloured powders and

liquids. It is a great way to bust stress, renew social bonds

and connect to tradition, " says Ravi Shankar, a priest of

Gokul Dham in Baldev. Revellers gorge on sweetmeats and

gujias, a traditional Holi delicacy; and drink a brew called

thandai laced with bhang, an intoxicant made from

cannabis.

 

In Bihar, the festival is bit a raunchy in nature. After playing

with colours in the day, revellers gather for noisy evenings

of 'humourous poetry and limerick recitals' in local dialects

that often border on the obscene.

 

In West Bengal, the festival is known as 'Dol Jatra',

celebrated a day after the north Indian Holi and is marked

by colourful processions.

 

In the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, colours

and prayers form the essence of festivities followed by

private parties. Residents of Jodhpur in Rajasthan celebrate

Holi with golden pearls and colours, which they rain on

each other.

 

Says Mumbai-based singer Sonu Nigam: " The most

amazing aspect of Holi is that it is probably one of the

oldest festivals in the world, besides Diwali. And every

time, I celebrate Holi, it is with reverence. Of course, I

detest forcing Holi on Holi-shy people... I love the energy

and spirit behind the festival. We must look at our entire life

as the festival of Holi - multi-coloured. "

 

However, commercialisation is taking is toll on the festival.

According to a study by Delhi-based NGO, Toxics Link,

mass production of colours in factories pose a threat to users

and environment because the powders have been found to

contain toxic chemicals.

 

In an advertisement in leading dailies, Delhi Chief Minister

Shiela Dikshit urged people to play with eco-friendly

colours made from beetroot, berries, spinach, mint, onions

and peels of pomegranate.

 

The Society for Child Development, a Delhi-based non-

profit organisation, is also following traditional methods to

make colours. The members of the group, mostly mentally-

challenged, are extracting colours from flowers under its

'Trash to Cash' project.

 

" We collect used flowers from 16 temples dotting the banks

of Yamuna river and the community prayer halls every

morning and make coloured powders from them. The

project also involves students of 100 schools in east and

central Delhi, who have been trained to process flowers for

Holi colours at special workshops, " said Madhumita Puri,

who spearheads the programme.

 

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