The Holi festival each year is held to welcome in spring and say goodbye to winter - not that I can really call this weather winter (35 degrees this week). The word 'Holi' comes from the Hindi word 'hola' meaning to thank the Almighty for a good harvest. So many people believe that by thanking the gods that this will help them for a future good harvest as well. The celebration is done on the first day after the full moon and is celebrated in the hope of fertile land and a good harvest.
The colours were historically made from drying flowers from the tree called the 'Flame of the Forest' and then grounded them into a powder. Now days, there are many chemical options out there which are, luckily, becoming less popular and people are opting for organic and safer options. We are very lucky to have acces to organic powdered colours that are very child friendly. Meow ever, at this morning a celebrations there were many 'brighter' colours which I canguarantee were not natural !! And when you're in the middle if celebrating it is one-in-all-in ! You grab what you can and spread the COLOUR!
We had the most wonderful day celebrating this crazy colourful day. We went to the community organised event at the playground opposite our house in the morning and it went from fun to insane in a very quick time. The dried colour powders were great but when the water guns and water bombs came out, it turned into more of a wet t-shirt competition. Lots of the little kids were quite intimidated by the process but not ours - the boys LOVED it !! The more colour the better, and Mike and I loved it too. It was so nice to see everyone with such high smiles on their faces - such a happy, happy morning.
We were flooded with orange powder from our wonderful Dutch neighbours, and we gave as good as we got !! In try Indian style, there is no party/event without very loud disco music pelting out ! So an hour or so of that and we were done - home for a family shower to wash off the colours as much as we could.
We were lucky enough to have been invited to another Holi celebration in the afternoon at Alison in Paul's (our besties !!) So, we cleaned up and went and did it all over again. I cannot tell you just how much Max enjoyed the day. He was meant to move to India just for Holi. Cannot wait for next year and we may even bring this celebration home with us !
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| Before it all began |
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| Best Buddies - Taylor came late in the morning, hence the white..... |
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| Jack and Mattie - more than buddies :) |
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| Max loved this day - the best in India !! |
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| Oh the joy |
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| And the big kids loved it too !! |
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| Best fun with Best Friends |
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| Gotcha Jack !! |
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| Our Dutch buddies |
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| I love this one !! |
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| Then we cleaned up and started again with more friends |
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| Not sure the PMOA are going to be happy about having to clean this road !! |
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| LOVE !!! |
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| Like butter wouldn't melt ! |
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| and after ! |
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| And only Max kept going and made it a whole lot worse |
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| Snack time |
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| and Max is still going........ |
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