Five facts about Holi, the festival of colors

1. The origins of Holi

According to the Hindu calendar, Holi falls on the last full moon of winter. Traditionally, it is celebrated in North India but is now popular across the country.

Legend has it that a king of demons – Hiranyakashhyipu – demanded that everyone worship him as a god. But his son Prahlad opposed him, which angered the king. Hiranyakashhyipu conceived many evil plans to kill his son but failed miserably.

Finally, the king’s sister, Holika, who was a sorceress, decided to make it her mission to kill the boy. She would sit at a giant bonfire with Prahlad and as long as her magical powers protected her, the boy would die. However, her plans also failed. The boy survived, while the sorceress burned to ashes.

In many regions, the Holi festival heralds the passing of the cold winter season and the advent of warmer weather, but it also celebrates the victory of good over evil. In Mathura, in northern India, people observe Holi as a celebration of the love between the Hindu god Krishna and his beloved, Radha, and re-enact scenes from their lives.

2. Traditional Holi food

Every Holi festival in India is associated with special food that is prepared to celebrate the event. Homemade “gujiya”, a mixture of nuts and raisins wrapped in sweet dough, is traditionally prepared by the women of the family the night before the holiday. Other traditional Holi dishes include “malpua” – fried sweet pancakes; stuffed buns, called “kachoris” – and the ubiquitous “laddoos”, dessert balls made from coconut, wheat or chickpea flour.

3. The traditional Holi drink

Holi is incomplete without the traditional “bhang”, a drink made from fresh cannabis leaves. A few days before Holi, “bhang” enthusiasts band together to undertake the tedious task of separating the buds and leaves of the cannabis sativa plant and grinding them into a paste. The mixture is added to traditional sweets or mixed with sweetened almond milk as a special day treat.

4. It’s a holiday!

The festivities begin at night, when families light bonfires to symbolize the burning of Holika, the sorceress who wanted to kill Prahlad. On Holi Day, revelers partake of a traditional Indian breakfast and gather with their families and friends to celebrate.

“Holi Hai”, Hindi for “It’s Holi”, is a cue for everyone to gather at one point, throw and spray colors at each other and generally make noise. If you’re lucky, you’ll get good quality organic color and minimal harassment. If you’re unlucky, enthusiastic crowds might carry you off and dump you in the nearest mud puddle or you might find yourself doused in permanent artificial colors that leave your hair and face purple for days on end.

Also, be careful if you are a man in Mathura: you might get spanked with a stick if you are participating in the traditional “lathmaar Holi” (Hindi for “hitting with a Holi stick”). If you are a woman, you can participate!

In western India, revelers often hang a clay pot filled with milk or yogurt at a certain height, while competing groups of boys make human pyramids to reach the container and break it.

5. Holi Songs

Songs including folk songs and Bollywood hits are a fixture of Holi. Neighborhoods often play religious and festive music from loudspeakers placed where people gather to play with paints and colors.

Many songs, especially Bollywood numbers, have become synonymous with Holi in recent decades. Perhaps the most popular voice associated with a Holi song is the one sung by Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. “Rang Barse” (Hindi for “It’s raining colors”) is the quintessential Holi, filled with drugs, dancing, adulterous flirting and sexual innuendo.

Edited by: Louisa Schaefer