The sun is shining through the clouds. The birds are chirping in the morning. The breeze is playfully pushing against my hair. *sigh* It finally feels like spring in the Midwest. One of my favorite things about spring is Holi!
Holi is a festival that is celebrated across the world by the people of India to welcome the season of spring. Holi involves two major components when celebrating.
The first part is throwing colors on your friends, family, and people of the community to celebrate spring! Originally, people threw dirt on each other, which is why it is also known as dhuleti in India. Dhul means dirt, hence the name dhul-eti. Now, people mostly throw colors at each other. This is more commonly known and seen as playing holi. This color symbolizes a new life and a new positive way of living!
As a kid, I remember filling up water balloons and water guns with colored water to throw on my friends during Holi! It was one of my favorite festivals growing up. I saved all my white T-shirts just for Holi.
Below is a music video of a popular Bollywood song that depicts what Holi looks like in India if anyone wants to get an insight into the fun! It’s from one of my favorite Bollywood movies: Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.
I think we can all agree that seeing the sun more always helps us overcome the seasonal depression from the gray winter. Seeing the colors of nature bloom once again in flowers, the green grass, and the little animals we see is a joy shared in Holi. I especially love seeing the squirrels back running around on Bowling Green’s campus!
The second part of Holi is known as holika dahan. There is a long story behind this aspect of Holi, but I’ll just give a simple overview. Holika dahan may just look like a large bonfire with tall flames to the eye, but there is deep-rooted symbolism. This bonfire depicts the triumph of good over evil and encourages people to burn away the negativity in their lives.
I believe everyone can relate to feeling overwhelmed with negativity. Today, there’s an immeasurable number of terrible things happening in the world that can impact our personal lives and mental health. This could be major world events like wars, crime, or injustice. It can also be internal things like fear, jealousy, stress, anxiety, insecurities, etc. The list is endless. Holika dahan acts as a space to visualize or think about those negative aspects of life and attempt to free ourselves from them.
Overall, I absolutely love Holi. Playing Holi with friends and family is always fun and brings out my inner child. I hope that the joy of spring, colors, and positivity reaches everyone this Holi!
