Wednesday, May 23, 2007

photos from Holi (March 4 & 9, 2007)

























4 comments:

Ian Keenan said...

How long do the colors stay on?

David Raphael Israel said...

On the 1st color day (first day of Holi), they just use powders, or powdered color slightly mixed with water into a paste, I guess. So from that day, the colors can wash off somewhat easily. But on the 5th day (the 2nd day of coloring, it seems), called Rang Pancham [Color Five], they use more seriously water-based colors -- which has the effect, I found, of giving a longer-lasting stain. Some mild traces linger on faces for a couple days, as I recall...

But in general (from my limited exposure to the phenom), people will tend to bathe and wash off the colors somewhat promptly; i.e., it's not a case of being obliged to say painted.

I believe (though I'm a bit vague on this) the cultural origin of this color-your-friends custom lies in stories of the pranks of teenaager Krishna, who would like to make a nuisance of himself.

In Hindu lore, Krishna is rare among spiritual figures for having attained God-Realization at a very early age -- i.e. as a child or maybe even infant. (This is perhaps not found in any other such figure.) As a consequence, he passed through adolescence with a very different perspective . . .

cheers,
d.i.

David Raphael Israel said...

small spelling correction --
the 5th day of Holi is called Rang Panchami.

Indeterminacy said...

Welcome back! Thanks for telling me about your new site - will add a link to it. Great photos here! I took a six week haitus from blogging, but am back writing a few more stories. I also set up a one-time photoblog thing recently with my so-called "street photography" made during a trip to Barcelona (vivalabarca.blogspot.com).