HOLI - Festival of Colors in India || Happy Holi 2012 - Play Safe and be respectful to other...

Holi Celebrations 2011 at Chandigarh !!!  : Posted by VJ SHARMA on www.travellingcamera.co : Many times when I don't have any good choice of sending holidays I move towards Chandigarh because of lot many reasons... A good city, lot of friends and lot many good reasons... The same thing happened this year during Holi vacations.. Few days back I was in Dharmshala and Palampur.. After having great fun at Holi Melas in himachal, I decided to celebrate the big day at Chandigarh... Here are some of the photographs of Holi day (20th March 2011).. Check out !!!I had planned these vacations with Nikhil on Facebook and had lot many plans which remained PLANs only :) ...  He was first one to come inside my room and spray color on me... I was sleeping at that time.. He came with a big gang and there was full plan to spend the whole day outside...Next Person who came and started complaining about the fact that I didn't inform him about my presence in the city ! Puneet Verma, MD, Cybrain Solutions  !!!Holi is famous as Basant Utsav in rural India... It is one of the major festivals in India and is celebrated with extreme enthusiasm and joy, which can be explained in words... Planning for the day started with some of the main pubs in Chadigarh and few specially organized rain dance parties around !!! Nikhil is already in dreams ... alas ! everything remained as dreams only... and all the plans changed...Ashish with his friends who met at Sukhna Lake... so he smiled and ordered their official photographer to click some photographs :)Some cool gang of boys who were carrying some agricultural equipments and utilizing them for celebrating wet Holi at Sukhna Lake in Chadigarh... Many of the folks in Chandigarh were riding Trackter with lot many folks loaded over it...Holi is the special when few people not like take bath with water and use dry colors... Here is one of the gang-member who had Color bath on that day...Nikhil, who was most irritated with worst snacks with single moult... On Holi, every eating placewas full and there were loong waiting queues outside.. Waiters were asking for flat 50 Rs tip before placing order and it was a big thing if you got more than three plates of snacks (although everything was tasteless.. ) ... I don't know why people think that Piyakkars don't have sense of taste when they are 4 peg down... Happy person, who is not eating anything... But how can he deny to take single peg on the special day of Holi...Nikhil telling 10 advantages of liquor consumption during day time.. Ashish is listening carefully... Initially plan was to arrange bhang and we had some experts to prepare the special drink for special day of Holi... but no one had right sources to get it ...Folks having camel ride after colobath of holi...By looking at electrifying crowd in the city, I realized that lot of folks from Punjab and other places come to Chandigarh for celebrating colors on the special day of Holi... How does it matter if they danced on a road-side or in a decent club... If clubs were full, why not utilize car speakers to have some thumkas on


Holi is actually a religious spring festival celebrated by Hindus. Holi is also known as festival of Colors. It is primarily observed in India, Nepal and countries with large Indic diaspora populations following Hinduism, such as Suriname, Malaysia, Guyana, South Africa, Trinidad, United Kingdom, United States, Mauritius, and Fiji. 8th March 2012 is the day when Holi will be celebrated this year. Travellingcamera is again going to some of the interesting Holi Fairs to bring back new favors of this colorful festival. For now, let's have this Photo Journey to know more about this festival and things people prefer to do during the day....

It is also known as Dolajata in Orissa and Dol Jatra, Basantotsav in West Bengal. The most celebrated Holi is in the Braj region, in locations connected to the Lord Krishna: Mathura, Vrindavan, Nandagaon, and Barsana. These places have become tourist destinations during the festive season of Holi. Lot of Photographers visit Nandgaon during Holi and we shall share some of the brilliant Photographs from this place soon... The second photograph above is intermediate state, when some of the folks prefer to keep washing their face to avoid think layers of color, although that never helps :)


Holi is celebrated at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month Phalguna, which usually falls in the later part of February or March. In 2012, Holi  is on March 8th and Holika Dahan is on March 7th..Holi is famous as Basant Utsav in rural India... It is one of the major festivals in India and is celebrated with extreme enthusiasm and joy, which can be explained in words...


Originally Holi Festival was a festival that commemorated good harvests and the fertile land. In addition to celebrating the coming of spring, Holi has even greater purposes. Hindus believe it is a time of enjoying spring's abundant colors and saying farewell to winter. Furthermore, Holi celebrates many religious myths and legends.


The spring season during which the weather changes, is believed to cause viral fever and cold. The playful throwing of natural colored powders has a medicinal significance: the colors are traditionally made of Neem, Kumkum, Haldi, Bilva and other medicinal herbs prescribed by Āyurvedic doctors.


A special drink called thandai is prepared sometimes containing bhang (Cannabis indica). For wet colours, traditional flowers of Palash are boiled and soaked in water over night to produced yellow colored water, which also had medicinal properties. Unfortunately the commercial aspect of celebration has led to an increase in the use of synthetic colors which, in some cases, may be toxic. All these synthetic colors can badly impact the environment as we notice during Diwali Celebrations.


Folks having camel ride after colorbath of holi...

Above Photograph was clicked at Chandigarh last year. By looking at electrifying crowd in the city, I realized that lot of folks from Punjab and other places come to Chandigarh for celebrating colors on the special day of Holi... 


How does it matter if they danced on a road-side or in a decent club... If clubs were full, why not utilize car speakers to have some thumkas on "Rang Barse  Bheege T-Shirt Vaali, Rang Barse...." etc... This photographh shows some of the folks enjoying near Sukhna Lake and Rock Garden of Chandiagrh..

Some of the Indians need to go for their official duties but that's not the excuse to not take the holy color-bath...


Holi is one of the major festival of India and is the most vibrant one... The joys of Holi knows no bound and sometimes that becomes a problem as well... The festival is celebrated across most of the states in India or rather across the globe... The festival is filled with so much fun that the very mention of the word 'Holi' draws smile and enthusiasm amongst the people... Holi also celebrates the arrival of Spring, a season of joy and hope...



What is remarkably same across the country is the spirit of Holi.... Fun, love and strength of relations marks this festival of colors... What more can be expected - when the people get a social sanction to get intoxicated on the bhang, open not just their hearts out but also their lungs. n no one is allowed to take offence.. 'Bura na mano Holi hai'


Holi is one of the oldest festivals of India... There are many interesting stories associated with Holi festival's origin as one moves across the different states from North to South and East to West... Mythology plays a very important part in narrating the festival of Holi as it happens with most of the festivals of India... The most popular stories of Holi origin relates to 'Holika Dahan' and Legend of Radha-Krishan... 


There is nothing right or wrong but its always advisable to play safe on these festivals ... Festivals are to enjoy and not to take risks for fun...



There is a Sikh festival of Hola Mohalla... Hola takes place on the first of the lunar month of Chet which usually falls in March. By a tradition established by Guru Gobind Singh, Hola is the masculine form of the feminine sounding Holi. The word "Mohalla" is derived from the Arabic root hal (alighting, descending) and is a Punjabi word that implies an organized procession in the form of an army column. But unlike Holi, when people playfully sprinkle colored powder, dry or mixed in water, on each other, the Guru made Hola Mohalla an occasion for the Sikhs to demonstrate their martial skills in simulated battles.





For children, Holi starts one week before as they have to do lot of sopping which includes pichkaris, dry color, color-sprays and color-powder to mix with water.. n how can I forget balloons to target people walking on the road...


Temples are beautifully decorated at the time of Holi and many groups organize various programs on last night... Idol of Radha is placed on swings and devotees turn the swings singing devotional Holi songs and its been long time that I have seen this happening around... For new generation, its a best time of reunion...





Why can't cars enjoy this festival.. Holi Hai !!!

Comments

Lumi said…
Nice article....i want to go barsana or mathura for holi celebration, but something keeps me sceptic, and that is the huge amount of articles that says not to go there cause is violent full of harassment...is there anything i can do to go there and enjoy holi festivals on the streets without dealing with unappropiate phisical contact?

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