Happy Holi !

On Saturday, the Indian religious festival of ‘Holi’ was celebrated in Kuala Lumpur. The original ancient name is “Holika” but nowadays it can be called the spring or color festival and it is celebrated on the day of the full moon in Phalgun Purnim, which is usually late February or early March. The original and right date in 2015 was 06.03 but many south asian countries celebrate it too choosing different dates. Funny things is that this year KL celebrated the spring festival exactly on the first day of spring in Poland, so I couldn’t miss it!

There is a lot of stories and legends about Holi depending on the region and beliefs. I like especially one about Krishna and his beloved Radha.

Krishna was known as a rebellious and playful young child, having very dark skin and was jealous of the fair complexion of Radha. He found it very unfair and couldn’t understand the reason of difference between the skin colour of Radha and his dark complexion. Trying to solve his problem he complained to his mum Yashoda and she gave him advice to colour the face of Radha using whichever colour he liked. The idea probably wasn’t serious but since Krishna was famous for his naughty nature he applied the colours on Radha to make her similar to himself. I heard there are numerous paintings showing the scene of Krishna painting Radha’s face, but unfortunately I have not seen any yet.

The festival takes place in a Hindu temple where all participants spray colors on each other, splash water, dance, eat and have lots of fun! At the entrance you buy a few dry colour powders that you later use to chase and color other people wishing them ‘happy holi’. The outdoor area of the temple was very crowded, full of different nationalities dancing to commercial and local music. The hot and sunny day made this celebration even more colorful and even lots of powder in my eyes didnt make the event less enjoyable. The enthusiasm dropped a bit after taking shower and realizing that my skin, clothes and hair love the colorful powder so much that don’t want it to go away so the rest of the weekend I spent with pink-yellow-green and purple hair, pink face and rainbow on my belly. Anyway I count holi as a one of the coolest events I have participated in and worth to repeat in one year, but maybe with bandana on my head and low quality clothes 😉