So...my title picture is pretty cool, right? Well, it comes from the Hindu religious festival Holi, which happened this week. It's a dream of mine to experience this celebration, and perusing this week's slideshows has been a welcome repast from the stress of midterms and chilly New York temperatures...
Holi is also known as the "Festival of Colors," and, as you can see by the pictures, basically what happens is everyone in the area (North India celebrates more than the Southern parts) throws paint and water at each other. The celebration is rooted in religion, though it's not a strictly religious celebration--mainly revelers are celebrating the coming Spring.
The paint throwing represents the triumph over evil, and is a pure celebration of joy, energy and life.
Holi seems to be a celebration of independence, incomparable to any holiday anywhere else in the world. Caste, gender and age boundaries are abandoned, and the districts of India become all-out, free-for-all bastions of no-holds-bar paint-throwing.
High government officials will partake in the celebrations, and its totally acceptable to run up to strangers and throw paint at them.
Perfect!
There is an excellent photo slideshow at the Boston Globe website.
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