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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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(from part of an E-mail:)
"We have our annual Holi event coming up on April 17th. It is the Indian festival of colours that signifies the end of winter and welcomes the coming of spring. People celebrate Holi by throwing rung (coloured powder) at their friends and loved ones. This event is free and open to the entire community...and it's a lot of fun!"
shanks, maahey, jheem, anyone: What does holi mean? And I'd like to hear more about the festival, too.
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veteran
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It means "holi" in Sanskrit. Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I've never seen an etymology for it. Here's what Monier-Williams has to say in his big ole Sanskrit dictionary: holaka. f. (perhaps from a cry or shout or sound in singing), the spring festival at the approach of the vernal equinox (commonly called Huli or Holi, and said to be dedicated to Krishna and the Gopis; it is celebrated during the 10 days preceding the full moon of the month of Phalguna, when people sprinkle red powder in sport and light fires; in some parts of India the Holi festival corresponds to or immediately precedes the dolayatra, q.v.)" I'm sure maahey or shanks can give the modern spin on it. Phalguna means 'reddish' and dolayatra means 'swing (ing of images of Krishna as a boy) festival, 14 Phalguna'. Our tilt is related to dolayate 'to swing' whence dolayatra above. It's always sounded like fun, but I've never experienced one firsthand.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Oh, its celebrated here in queens--i stumbled (well, i drove through) a neighborhood celebration last year, and yes, every one was happy, and looked colorful! i had no idea what was being celebrated, but people, and sidewalks were all covered with colored chalks/powders.
come down to queens, take I-678 (the Van Wyck--a majory road to JFK) get off at Liberty avenue and head west-- 2 or 3 traffic lights down, you'll find your self in a neighborhood of West Indian Indians (People from the west indies, who are by heritage from India proper.)--the have great food (a mix of tropical flavors, caribian foods and curries)
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addict
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addict
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It is the MOST-est fun! You will not have so much fun in any other festival; this I can pretty much guarantee. I don't know about the word origins, but I can tell you about the festival. It is celebrated all over India (orginated in the northern parts) to herald the arrival of Spring. Everyone *must wear white (the better for the rainbow effects!) and whole communities gather on the streets or in private lawns to celebrate. It starts with the ceremonial annoiting of red powder on faces, and quickly dissolves into utterly wild contests of throwing coloured powder(any colour) and coloured water on each other. Within minutes you will be unrecognisable. The powders and the canisters for the water are readied for attack the previous day. Apart from the hand held pumps, whole barrels of coloured water are strategically placed for dunking! It is GREAT fun. The colour thowing goes on for the whole day and *anyone is fair game. And then, there is the 'bhang'....this I shall wait for Shanks to detail; he might have personal experience!!  Here's another fun factoid. There is a unique version of Hol, called Lathmar Holi, that is celebrated in some pockets in the northern parts. Lath - a bamboo rod/sticks; Mar - (MAAR)to hit. On Lathmar Holi, women gather in all their finery and come out armed with the Lath sticks. The men have wooden shields that they hold over their heads. Women on this day, are authorised to give the men a sound beating for any grievances that they might have accumulated against them over the past year. All in fun, of course. The movements of beating and shielding have evolved into a dance form. I have seen the spectacle on NatGeo. AnnaS, you must have received a festival notice for the adjusted date for the North American Spring. Holi must be done and finished with in India by now.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Isn't there a kind of truncheon (wielded by Indian police?) called a lathi?
Bingley
Bingley
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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And a wicked thing it is, too. Seen it used in earnest ...
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Yup, seen it used near Mumbai. They are longer than a billy club, more like a staff.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Seen it used in earnest ...
did he enjoy it?
<running down the garden path...>
formerly known as etaoin...
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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The copper was enthusiast in his swinging. The beatee just curled up into a ball. Not pleasant for him at all.
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old hand
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old hand
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Maahey's got it right - celebrated it in Bombay, boy and (youngish) man.
(Sidebar - the lathi charge can be a vicious thing. And the things the police can do with them to captors in police lock-ups... let's not lower the tone, Holi is supposed to be fun!)
In any case, the key to Holi is the colour, and the idea of everybody throwing colour on everybody else. In our neck of the woods the majority of the revelry would be over by about lunchtime. All the grown-ups would retire to their homes, wash and change, and spend the rest of the day drinking and eating - and often playing cards in reflection of the great card nights over Dussehra and Diwali.
For the kids, Holi was a loosening of the bonds of discipline. For weeks on the lead-up to the day, we would be throwing water-balloons (not filled with coloured water) at passersby on the roads below. School was havoc, since most of us had 'fountain-pens', which are perfect for showering putative opponents with. One well-judged air-swipe with an open pen, at a range of about a metre or so, and you would leave an artistic trail of ink on the fellers pristine shirt. We would have long drawn out ink fights or battles through the ocrridors of the school every break, to the despair of our parents who had to cope with the laundry. Wisely, the school decreed that we were only allowed to use water-soluble blue ink in our pens, which mitigated the damage somewhat.
In later years, the bhang Maahey spoke of came into play. It is, as some of you may know, a drink concocted from cannabis, and though slower-acting than smoking the blessed stuff, it's longer-lasting. A friend once, on a bhang high on Holi, spent some 12 hours on the edge of a rooftop, playing the dholak. He eventually came down only when the high wore off. His friends, who were with him at the time, were themselves so stoned that they saw nothing strange in his actions.
My most extreme bhang trip was one year when, with three other friends, managed to grab the family car (parents were too sleepy or merry to demur) and drove out of town couple of hundred kilometres to a place on the beach called Devka, where some other friends were hiding out from the Holi festivities ("this childish, barbaric nonsense. I want no part of it!"), and ambushed them with balloons and colour, causing high dudgeon and great consternation. Not depressed by the hail of abuse we. satisfied with our expedition, turned around and drove all the way home again.
The thing about bhang (as is the thing with Holi) is that it is akin to the 'fool's day' or 'twelfth night' idea - where inhibitions are supposed to be abandoned. So bhang is drunk pretty much by all, and even though cannabis consumption is supposedly illegal, no policemen are going to say a thing about anyone drinking bhang on Holi.
The festival has its darker side, of course, with numerous (innumerable?) accounts of sexual harrassment and rape emerging every year after its passing. Pity - but the repressed young men persumably lose much sense of right and wrong at a time like this and mistake freedom for licence.
For what it's worth, the story I was told about Holi was that it was a celebration to mark the killing of Prahlad's father, Hiranykashyapa, by Narasimha, the 4th avatar of Vishnu.
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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