Holi Moly

'Holi' is a Hindu celebration in India where you run around in the street for about 3 hours in the morning and throw and shoot (via waterguns) colored dye at each other. As we learned yesterday from some of the 30 or so people we 'played' with, raw eggs, and old tomatoes are also acceptable artillery. It was our luck that Holi arrived this year just a day after we did. Our Indian classmates back home suggested we spend the morning inside the hotel, but a large group of us knew this was a once in a lifetime chance and it was our obligation to take part.

On the first night we asked our guide what the significance of the holiday was and he responded that honestly he had no idea. A Wikipedia search uncovered that it's basically a celebration of spring with complex roots in Hindu mythology. A comprehensive explanation can be found here. TG and I decided on the bus yesterday that Holi is a lot like Indian easter, except here in India the dye goes on your body and the eggs go on your head. From Wikipedia.com:

This festival occurs at the onset of spring. This period, during which the weather changes, is prone to cause viral fever and cold. Thus, the playful throwing of the coloured powders has a medicinal significance as the coloured powders are made of Neem, Kumkum, Haldi, Bilva, and other medicinal herbs prescribed by Āyurvedic doctors.

For more Holi pictures make sure to check out my India flickr gallery. ps: thanks to bax for these photos. Both were shot on his plastic-bag-protected digicam.