True Colors- The Holi MARCH toward a Green Spring!
March is the tipping point of the year in our part of the world- balls tip into baskets as lengthening days tip all of us toward warmer temps and the great outdoors. It’s more than the third month of the year, it’s a time to look ahead and consider how you’d like to spend your time when the sun lingers a bit longer in the evening sky and true colors return to the world around us.
While most of us may be thinking green this time of year (with the pending celebration of St. Patrick’s Day), for the people of India, the return of color is less about Mother Nature and more about creating color for themselves. The month of March kicks off Holi, an Indian spring festival of color, that looks like a cross between a Pride Day parade (Holi is also known as the festival of LOVE, after all) and one of those outrageous color runs in which everyone crosses the finish line looking like a rainbow.
Source: Wiki Commons
Participants throw powdered pigment at each other, often in large groups, and no one is safe. If you happen to be on the street during a Holi celebration, prepare to be colorfully coated without much say in the matter!
Tourists are warned by cab drivers in advance, as avoiding the revelers is nearly impossible. PHashonistas be warned, while the colored powder is pretty, it’s also permanent once it adheres to clothing fibers! Imagine a massive, moving brightly hued crowd becoming an ever-changing living work of art… one word- AMAZING!
Holi signifies gratitude for a good harvest, victory of good over evil, the approach of spring, a time to laugh and love, and to repair relationships or begin one anew. It is a vibrant reminder to march to the beat of your own drum leaving those less liberated green with envy! We see your true colors, and they’re shining through… like a big PHAG rainbow!
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