Holi-The Festival of Colors!!

Holi the festival of colors became more colorful and full of beautiful memories as I got a chance to witness two interesting celebrations of this festival i.e. The Elephant Festival at Jaipur on the eve of Holi and witnessing Lathmar Holi of Barsana in Uttar Pradesh.

(Picture Title: Royal Guards leading the Grande Elephant Parade, during Elephant Festival)

The Elephant festival is organized in Jaipur every year on the eve of Holi and is equally famous among the westerners as well as locals. The festival begins with grand parade by caparisoned elephants followed by decorated horses, camels and folk artists. A highly enjoyable experience! Once the parade is over the festival turns into a riot of colors, as everybody gathers in the center of the ground around the decorated elephants while folk artists dance on traditional songs. The real fun starts when the mahouts sitting on elephants start splashing colors and flowers on everybody and making the atmosphere colorful. Different competitions are also organized during the festival between locals and westners; however the tug- of-war is the best.

Few days prior to the Elephant Festival in Jaipur I also happened to be part of one more colorful event i.e. Lathmar Holi of Barsana, a small town in Uttar Pradesh. Here right from the morning till the evening the day remains full of events. It is difficult to make out who is a local or who is from outside the town as everybody is seen in the festive mood. Right from the morning till the evening, one can see many different small-small groups dancing, singing and putting colors on each other. These groups (locally known as tolis) move from one lane to another lane, dance on traditional tunes and finally this day long colorful event culminates with the ages old and even more colorful tradition where the ladies of the Barsana village dress up beautifully come out in the chowks (open area just outside the houses) to play Lath-mar holi with the men of Nandgaon.

‘Holi’ is the most popular festival of the common man in Indian sub-continent. The festival permeates through all sections & class of society including the remote tribal pockets as well as elite Bollywood celebrities. This is a festival of playing with colors and symbolizes brotherhood cutting across differences. The festival signifies several things together like a good crop, happy matrimonial alliances, strange rare customs and mythological episodes.

This was amazing experience with colors which is worth a visit and hard to be narrated. If more details required do contact us on info@voyagesworld.com or visit www.voyagesworld.com .

Images from Elephant festival

 

 

Images from Barsana, Lathmar Holi