What is Holi you ask?

It's a crazy, mad, fun (and my fav) festival of colours. You literally get to go around throwing powdered and liquid forms of colour on people - and everyone is fair game!

Coloured powder

Happy Holi Dek!!!

Happy Holi aman!! 

(just realised it was today not long ago) 

umh where is it celebrated? sounds like fun!

It is mandatory that you look something like this at the end of the day:

Holi is my favourite festival!!!

generally celebrated in India

and around the world by Indians

wait let me see if i still have my pics

oh The Gangaur festival, i saw it first hand when I was a student at india

Lots of loud music, tricks and fun fun fun!!!

Nice prospect... did you get to participate?

I love the part where I can play heaps of tricks on people - of course then they turn around and get me too!!!

nah didn't have the chance had exams those days but next yr after i was on my way to date and got hit up , ppl will throw color at you random just like westerners throw snow

Did you get to drink Bhang prospect? I still have not been able to get my hands on that Cannabis based intoxicant!!!

Bhang? nah maybe you mean chewed Pan 

ya!!! hahahaha!!! What happened to your date?

Bhang is cannabis??

aman, well didn't happen dear my motor bike and my cloth all coloured like rainbow 

but I do miss motorbikes up there not much rules and restrictions

heheheheh oops

no paan but  Bhang - it's a drink that people will drink mostly on Holi!!

No traffic rules period!

ya - no one to enforce the rules more like it!!

dek for real i once parked in wrong place they took my bike away and i didn't have license or papers proving that i owned it or insurance for that mnatter, but had to bribe my way out at the police station to get my bike back

it was fun days though

hahahahah You have lots of funny stories from there!

oh god once I was on my way back from clubbin with this pretty lil girl on my bike it was my earlier days when i started learnin how to drive so these dogs starts runnin after the bike , dogs normally take it as a joke and i hate dogs so i accelerated *you see where this going* instead of slowing so they lose interest and stop chasing me

and while accelerating i was looking at the dogs running beside my leg thinking they will bite me without payin attention to the road  and i ended up hittin this massive tree

the cruel girl just got up and jumped in rikshaw without even checkin if i was alright or anything!!!!

OH NO!!!

but ya - i must say that dogs in India have taught many riders some great lessons!!!

and some!!lol

umh what time is it up there aman and dek ?  

where? India?

it's 5.30pm now 

aman you @ india ? where ?

but i'm not in India - wish I was

then i'd be drenched in colours

I'm in Singapore 

once upon a time - a few years ago - Holi was banned in public places.

But now we can play in parks so i got to play proper today

heheh sounds like fun

but it's more civilised still - no one throws colours on people they dun know!!!

its not about being civilized westerners throw snow without knowing the ppl

definately a wish to go to India and drink Bhang, get high and go crazy playing Holi!! Gotta start making frens in India!!!

really? random snow fights? sounds like fun!

aman, nah not really down here at london little hoodlums cover stones with snow and throw it at you

and that hurts!!

where did Dek go ?

Oh!! That's painful!!! We should super soak them with Holi colours.

paging Dek!!

so you're in London eh? too cold for Holi mate 

yeah way too cold for anything but thanks to golbal warming the weather is getting better

Thats why londoners never recycle we actully enjoying better weather

hahahahah!!!

thanks to Global warming!!!

That's a first!!! 

seems to me all you guys know each other here 

ok it's a bit late but HAPPYY HOLIIIIIII!!!!!!!

hehehe sorry prospect.... dek decided to go watch tv since her laptop batt was running out

Yeah, some of us know each other.... what with aman n I being sisters n all heheheheh

But many of us have just met on Tangler...

Just keep talking/typing, we'll all feel like old friends in no time! 

Those colours are fantastic. What does the festival mean? Is the colour significant?

errrrrrm..... You know, I used to know these things once upon a time....

AMAN!!!! We need info here!

thanks! 

I dont know any of you ! Who are you guys? where am I ?

DEk where are you off too now lol

You need some colour

ya!! and you need to get sprayed with paint - give that mask some colour phantom!!!

Sometimes Tangler is like playing cigarette tag lol

Ok - so Holi - has multiple stories linked to it

basically - it's to celebrate Spring and the colours are actually based on their derivatives

hahahah

Don't panic Phantom.... we'll find our way to you eventually 

like greeen i think is from Neem, Yellow from Tumeric base, Red from a mix of dried tumeric and slaked lime, etc

all the derivatives are from herbs/plants that are anti-bacterial and medicinal - as it's the season for flu and the like

However now thanks to commercialism - colours are made from some metals and chemicals which actually end up being harmful. can't get them in your eyes anymore - kils the fun!!! 

terrible.....

the day before burning of the effigy basically signifies burning of our negative qualities - you decide one negative quality that you want to change/improve upon and throw it into the fire. Makes it a powerful visual representation of making change rather than just saying I've got to stop "being angry" for example.

also in families its a visual representation of disolving all ill feelings against each other as quickly as things get consumed by fire and take away good feelings towards each other. Forgive and forget.

effigies are part of holi??

yup!! Effigy of Holika - or just a bon fire - done the night before

oh yeah.... of course

Water colour fights and bonfires.... what could be better?

the significance of that comes from one fairly popular mythical story.

The King Hirankashyap desired to be seen as the greatest immortal man. To fulfill his desire he did the required penance and was granted a boon by Brahma. He asked that it not be
possible for him to die as a result of a human or animal, that he not
die either in his home or outside, that he not die in the day or at
night, that he not die either by curses or man made weapon, and
that he not die either on land or in the sea or in the air. He was
granted his wish and so felt invincible and told his people to worship
him as a God. Everyone obeyed with the exception of his son Prahlad. Prahlad refused to see his father as a god and stayed devoted to Vishnu.

This made Hiranyakaship very angry and he made various attempts to
have Prahlad killed. One of these attempts King Hiranyakashyap called upon his sister
Holika for help. Holika had a special gift that prevented her from
being harmed by fire. King Hiranyakashyap asked her to sit on a
bonfire with Prahlad on her lap in the hope that this would kill
Prahlad. But as before Prahlad chanted Vishnu's name and was not hurt,
but Holika burnt to her death. She meant harm to an innocent child so despite her boon she died. Prahlad representing being virtuous and devotion walks our unscathed - he also did not harbour any ill feelings towards his father.

Fire burnt on the eve of Holi symbolizes the burning of Holika. The burning of negativites and the preservation of positive qualites and LOVE!!! 

What great symbolism. It certainly beats drinking too much and then making all sorts of unachievable resolutions, forgotten the day after.

And it must be quite cathartic too. 

hehehehehe!!!

Actually maybe that's why that drinking thing comes in as well - they make resolutions and then decide it can't be achieved anyways so let's get drunk and forget about it. 

the day after the burnign effigy when people are drinking colours - most of them are drunk on Bhang - in the villages for sure!!!