On the day after the full moon on 8th March 2012, Holi the festival of colours was unleashed on India. It is an exhilarating festival, when everyone lights a bonfire, throws coloured powder and water at each other, dances and sings and goes absolutely crazy. It is a time for enjoying the riot of spring colours and saying farewell to winter. The underlying meaning is the promise that after the coldest winter, comes the vibrant joy of spring.
It is believed that the combination of different colours played at this festival take all the sorrow away and make life itself more colourful. Flowers of Dhak or Palash are used to make traditional colours. The spring season, during which the weather changes, is believed to cause viral fever and colds,so wet colours, traditional flowers of Palash are boiled and soaked in water over night to produced yellow coloured water, which also had medicinal properties. The playful throwing of natural coloured powders has a medicinal significance: the colours are traditionally made of Neem, Kumkum, Haldi, Bilva, and other medicinal herbs prescribed by Āyurvedic doctors. This festival defines how celebrations should be held. Don’t use toxic chemical colours or pollute water ways with plaster of Paris statues. But why wait for Holi to celebrate your life in rainbow colours? Let all your celebrations nurture the earth.
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